Little Nightmares Review

Little Nightmares can only be described as an adventure-suspense platformer that has some puzzles thrown in and a story that is left to your imagination. Developed by Tarsier Studios, the developer behind LittleBigPlanet, based out of Malmö gives us the complete edition that combines the main game and expansion “Secrets of the Maw”. In Little Nightmares you play as a girl named Six who attempts to escape the world of the Maw from strange and scary creatures that we can only assume are trying to kill her and serve her up as food. On the flip side the expansion has you playing as “The Kid” who is on a similar journey that is happening in parallel to Six’s story arc. It is a visually stunning game that had us so excited that we talked about it heavily on Episode 4.0 and Episode 5.0.

Review:

As I was playing Little Nightmares about ten different emotions came over my body. I was stunned by the graphics, curious about the story, happy when I made it past a creepy creature, jumpy when a creature grabbed me in darkness, utterly frustrated of dying over and over and waiting 30 seconds each time for the game to load, and finally sad when everything came to an end. As I played through Six’s “story” (or lack of one) I was really pulled into the world that I knew nothing about (because they don’t tell you) and what she is doing there. What are these creatures? Why do they want to capture me? Oh boy are they creepy to look at but also visually stunning. I never found the platforming to be over the top difficult or the puzzles to really be all that challenging, but I did really enjoy the core of the game. I think just because it was so pretty to look at and such a weird environment that I just wanted to keep going.

As I proceeded on to “The Kid’s” story it was a lot more of the same as playing as Six. More emotions crept over me and each and every time I died because of not understanding a puzzle, or not walking slowly enough past an enemy had me dreading that super long ridiculous load time. Somehow I enjoyed playing the expansion a little bit more than the original story because it had these super cute gnomes that you got to solve puzzles with. It also got you a little bit closer to understanding the world of the Maw, but still not at all. At the end I was torn with this game. I loved the visuals and trying to figure out the world, but then hated the long load times each and every time you die (and it is a lot) and of course the lack of story. All that said I still think it is a game worth adding to your collection at some point especially if they patch the load times.

• Gameplay: Controls felt tight exploring the beautiful world that had hidden gems along the way, but puzzle solving by dying is overly frustrated with the long load times.
• Audio: The only audio is subtle music in the background and creepy noises from the world around you. All very nice, but I would have loved some narration here.
• Graphics: I am a sucker for anything close to claymation, and the beautiful world and graphics that reminded me of Coraline pulled me in.

Verdict

Subscribe to Nintendo Dispatch Podcast

Get the latest episodes of Nintendo Dispatch automatically using the links above, or by copying and pasting the URL below into your favorite podcast app: http://www.nintendodispatch.com/rss

James purchased this game in full from the eShop and played the entire game to completion.

Read about Nintendo Dispatch's Reviewing Policy.