Like playing a fun, animated, children’s story, things could be worse.
The Little Acre is a game I had never heard about until it was brought to my attention for review. I want to be up front, this game is short, fairly easy for the genre, and lacking story details to flesh out the world the characters live in. Would I recommend playing it still though? Absolutely, as even with its flaws it had plenty of things that kept me smiling.
Animation Station
The Little Acre is a point and click style adventure where players control both Aidan and his young daughter, Lily. Investigating the sudden disappearance of his father, who still hasn’t returned. What starts out as a normal day around the house turns into an adventure for both father and daughter. It’s a story that has both charm and heart. The story has a beginning, middle, and end, but it feels a bit rushed and almost disjointed. Things happen way too quick, and I felt an overall lack of details.
MSRP: $12.99
Price I’d Pay: $9.99
Multiplayer: N/A
How long to beat: 2-3 hours
Luckily everything else helps elevate the experience. The animation brings to life the world, and even more so the characters. I came to enjoy both father and daughter. Not only was the animation great, but the voice actors did a fantastic job as well. Both characters had me genuinely laughing and smiling throughout the adventure. The style of animation and art design also changed depending on the two locations to give a bit of separation and distinction between the world Aidan and Lily live in, versus the world they get pulled into.
Puzzle wise, players familiar with the genre won’t find too many brain bending puzzles. Honestly this is both a pro and a con, as some games end up over complicating puzzles to the point of obscurity and frustration. Others perhaps go a bit too easy. I won’t say Little Acre was a complete cake walk as I got stumped once or twice, but being familiar with the genre I found most of the puzzles simple in execution and ideas. For those that get stuck, there is a nice 3 tier hint system that can push players in the right direction before outright giving the answer. I always appreciate this feature that some of the recent point and click games have been doing.
Short but sweet
Getting through Little Acre will probably last players anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours. I finished the game rather quickly, and while I was satisfied, I also had a lot of questions. What was the location Adriana and Lily got transported to? Why was their father doing research? What was the ultimate motivation of the bad guy? The story here is simple, and moved through rather quickly, and then suddenly it’s over. That’s got to be my biggest criticism against the whole game. Which, I’ll admit, is probably because I really enjoyed the story elements we did get. The banter and dialog from the father and daughter partnership and the overall feeling of watching an animated movie charmed me to no end.
I’d really like to see what the developers do next, if it’s anything like The Little Acre, I’ll definitely be eager to play it. For new comers to the point and click genre, this is a perfect game to experience. Veterans of the genre, while not offering much challenge or length, can still find lots to love in everything else it brings.
Favorite moment: Plenty of silly moments, but Lily provided me lots of chuckles.
Worst moment: Ending sooner rather than later.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
