My Little Universe Switch Review
My Little Universe is a very unique combination of genres, part survival, part exploration, and part adventure. Usually, when games attempt to combine too many genres or mechanics, it can lead to games that are a combination of good ideas that somewhat fall short of expectations. My Little Universe aims to combine a unique isometric tile-style world, combined with resource management and exploration, to create a mini-universe in your hands. So does My Little Universe succeed in doing so? Or does it fail to break orbit? Let’s take a look.
You play as a stickman, who has crashed on a strange planet and is tasked to quickly construct a portal to your first world. Not much is explained, and this isn’t a narrative-driven adventure so you don’t really feel like you are missing out. After porting out to your first planet, the game opens up to introducing more gameplay mechanics. My Little Universe does a great job of slowly introducing new things as you explore this new world, and it’s almost like a cozy game in that sense, with no firm objectives in place that force you to move on.
The gameplay loop sees you gather resources and spend said resources to unlock new tiles which leads to further resources and mechanics, allowing you to progress further in the world. Sometimes, you unlock utility tiles like a lumber mill to use wood to create planks, or dungeons to explore. Initially, I wasn’t sure how this mechanic would play out in the long run, I found it to be unique and interesting, and thankfully, due to generous resource deposits and item pickups, you are rarely caught out. Resources also have a fast respawn rate making collecting a fast exercise instead of a slog. Sometimes, there is a little backtracking required to get resources in a different biome or even world, and due to the fast respawn rate, it sometimes is a mild annoyance to mine your way through a path you cleared less than 30 seconds ago, but those resources will come in handy in the long run.
Biomes you discover along the way are themed, ranging from pirate skeletons to angry gingerbread men, and while it may sound all a bit silly at times, it sticks with the theme of porting to strange new worlds and suits the game style. You can also revisit worlds to quickly collect resources that may be missing in your new world, and this is made easier by the universal map, which shows off what resources are available before you port in.
On the surface, the character designs may look shallow, but your blank character is still expressive due to some great little animations, and the world is rendered with charm and style, all while running at a super smooth framerate. Resources and biomes are varied with their own enemies, and it’s exciting to discover a new area as you are unlocking sectors of your world. Animations are slick, upgrades and skins are appealing, and the game has an overall polish to it as you explore your world. The UI can tend to be a little confusing with only recent items gathered showing, to see your full inventory, you have to open your backpack and take a look around to see what your stock is like. The game is perfect for completionists as there’s plenty to collect, which also leads to new character skins as well.
As mentioned before, some tile unlocks lead to caves, dungeons, and boss battles to contend with that can sometimes catch you off guard. Defeat these challenges and you might get enough XP to level up and get a booster card with a new ability or stat boost. Fail these challenges, however, and you will lose all acquired boost cards. Other outcomes could be rescuing an NPC which may open up trading items for coins, or new armour pieces and upgrades. It’s a smooth difficulty curve that isn’t too punishing so defeat isn’t too discouraging.
If you are having a tough time though, you can enlist the help of 3 other friends with a drop-in and out Co-op play option in local play. Resources and upgraded items are shared amongst all players as you explore and build up your world. You can all go to separate ends of the worlds and the framerate runs at a consistent 24-30 frames or so while playing.
There are some small annoyances that aren’t a deal breaker, Auto weapon switching can be hit and miss (no pun intended,) enemy respawns can be too quick and overly aggressive (although there’s a booster card that can fix that,) and enemies on different tile levels can hit you but you can not hit them back. While the latter can be frustrating, especially early on, it doesn’t happen too often and simply moving one or two steps back seems to bring them to your level.
All of this comes together to create a great little game that may have a hard time competing for your attention during this release-heavy month, which is a shame because there’s a lot of fun to be had for those who take the plunge and port into My Little Universe. Its price point of just over $20 AUD means that despite its title, My Little Universe is a big adventure that has 40+ hours of gameplay for completionists for the price of a movie ticket. Its collaboration of ideas are well executed, and its relaxing nature makes it a great time for all ages. If you find a space in between the bigger titles coming out this month, you can’t go wrong with My Little Universe.
So What’s it Like?
My Little Universe is a cross between Mario Galaxy and Minecraft
In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided, this has no outcome on my score.
The developer did provide an affiliate link if you are interested in purchasing the title by clicking here
