Lil Gator Game Review
A few hours of hilarious and absurd content that hits like a hot bowl of soup
I’ve seen many marketing teams try to sell games on being “cute personified”, and it pretty much never works on me. I respect people who are looking for a cute game to cozy up to, but I take my craft seriously. I only play the best of the best. I like games that knock me down, spit in my eye, and dare me to pick the controller back up. So that’s why when I had the chance to review an unserious, silly title like Lil Gator Game…I absolutely played the hell out of that cute-as-heck game. A few hours later, the verdict is in: Lil Gator Game slaps.
All jokes aside, when I originally saw the trailer for this game, I was immediately interested. The game was presented as an extremely dope,y unimportant adventure. Like, the title is Lil Gator Game for goodness sake. It was evident that the development team had a sense of humor, and I was cautiously optimistic about how that would be conveyed in the full product. Well, the team at MegaWobble landed that plan perfectly. The dialogue and gameplay created this perfect fusion of fun that had me grinning the whole way through.
First off, I want to give a big shout-out to the writing team. On the surface, the story is pretty straightforward. Lil Gator misses playing with his Big Sis, so he orchestrates this big game for her so that they can have one last adventure now that she’s back from college. The main plot is fairly simple, but it actually came together to have some pretty heart-warming moments in the end. That being said, in my opinion, that is not the reason to play this game. The reason to play this game is the goof,y family-friendly humor. I was smiling and grinning through the whole game, which rarely happens. It’s hard to describe, and I understand humor is subjective, but I thought they nailed the way that all the kids communicate with each other. For my anime watchers, it’s the same reason that Spy x Family’s humor works so well. It doesn’t make the kids annoying or unbelievable, but it does make them naive and illogical, and when a bunch of naive and illogical kids are all trying to problem-solve with one another, it just makes for some hilarious interactions.
Lil Gator Game takes things a step further by enhancing the humor through the gameplay. The amount of visual gags that are built into the game is amazing. From unlocking a ragdoll button to meeting a magic monkey that disappears into himself, this game is just off the walls bonkers. It comes back to the game, establishing its identity and then using every aspect of the game to build upon that. They also cleared one very important hurdle: this would all be for not if the game wasn’t polished. It’s almost a slap in the face when a goofy game is buggy or frustrating, but Lil Gator Game isn’t. The mechanics are purposely a little clunky looking, but everything feels as it should. There are a ton of great abilities and costumes you can unlock, and they all just work. It really only adds to the experience, which I think is crucial in a game like this, because if any piece of the puzzle doesn’t fit, the whole project starts to suffer.
That being said, I did have some minor critiques of the game. The map for the game is much larger than expected, especially when you’re just a Lil Gator wandering around an island. I really wish we had access to a map. I found myself getting lost a few more times than I would like the admit, and although they have little park-style map boards, I really would have just liked to open a menu to get my bearings. That kind of extends to the quests as well. Most of the quests were pretty straightforward, but some that asked me to find certain items had me feeling stuck. The game tries to give you guidance on where to look for things, but in a handful of instances, I either accidentally found the item or never found it at all. My last criticism is that the game map sometimes feels like busy work. You’re cutting down what seems like a limitless amount of cardboard enemies to get current and complete quests, and while it was mostly fine, I would have loved to see some other ways to earn currency out in the world.
All in all, Lil Gator Game was a joy to play. I think that anyone interested in Lil Gator Game, regardless of the reason, will probably find what they’re looking for. It’s a very well-rounded, fun, relaxing game to play, and I can’t wait to see what the talented crew at MegaWobble comes up with next.
