The true adventure begins once Wake departs from his home.

Luckily, the game doesn’t lose any of its fun despite this.

I was anticipating a puzzle game involving colourful companions, but the themes of abandonment, running away, loneliness, and familial issues intermittently come up in the narrative. Wake comments on his living state, and mentions that “he’s gone”, and Wake writes a note stating that he’s leaving and that “he probably won’t come looking for me anyway”. There is unfinished laundry, discarded bottles and soda cans in the living room, a past due bill, and trash scattered about. The scene setting is phenomenal, and immediately establishes Wake as a boy who loves to play games and who lives alone with his father. Our initial playable character is Wake, a pre-teen passionate about running away from home. Luckily, it establishes itself very quickly, and lets you know that you’re in for something involving most easily described as parental issues.

While I understood a bit of what to expect gameplay wise jumping into The Wild at Heart, the story was up in the air. In The Wild at Heart though, there is an over-arcing narrative full of heart and love, and it’s one I knew would instantly soften me within the first ten minutes of play. They are adorable, and each time one perishes because of my own ineptitude I feel a twinge of sadness.Īdmittedly, I am not sure if there is a story in Pikmin, or what the motivation of the space suit wearing man is. You get fun little sprite friends that walk around behind you as you take them unknowingly towards their doom. I found videos of the little creatures screaming as you sent them hurdling to their deaths, as they were crushed helping you, as you threw them in the wrong spots- and so on. All of them replied that they tried Pikmin when they were younger, and that the game was unforgiving. I asked five of some of my friends if they’ve played the game before, a question I quickly realized may be a necessary perspective for this review. I have never played the Nintendo-published game, Pikmin. To begin with, I suppose it’s confession time.

The wild at heart game switch