Storm Boy Review

Storm Boy: The Game is an adaptation of Australian Authors Colin Thiele's 1964 novella for Xbox One (how I played the game), PS4, Switch, PC, Mac, and Mobile from Blowfish Studios.

To be honest and it might be because I'm the UK, I've never heard of Colin Thiele or his works, however what I gather from playing the game and a section in the menu talking about the novellas history, it's clearly an important piece of literature. 

After reading the history section before playing, I think Storm Boy is an interesting game not in terms of playing but more in educating you about relationships with people be it your father Hide-Away Tom or your buddy a pelican called Mr Percival and few others along the way in this half an hour or so game.

Yeah, the game is short and rather simple as really all you do is just wander around a beach, playing some simple mini-games such as fetch with Mr Percival in what is a fairly beautiful oil-painting-like visuals which I can imagine is based on illustrations straight from the book.

Storm Boy won't be for everyone but if you have young kids, I could see this being a great introduction to gaming in the same way as you might read them the actual novella. 

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The Gardens Between Review

I just want to start off by saying that I asked on Twitter for some feedback regards to reviews as I was offered a code for The Gardens Between a game I very much was looking forward to that I jumped at the opportunity to review TGB but wasn't sure where I'd actually put the review.

After the feedback I got, yes this will stay primarily as an Xbox focused blog however you seem to be interested in what else is happening outside of Xbox and with a title like The Gardens Between being available on PC, Mac, Linux, Switch and PS4 (where I played TGB) meaning even if it's not on Xbox, you may have a way to check it out and check it out you should.

The Gardens Between focuses on teenagers Arina and Frendt, who live next door to each other. One stormy night the pair sneak out and hide out in their treehouse, built on a small garden square next to both houses when a light sphere causes the treehouse to enter a dream-like a state.

In this dream-state, Arina and Frendt come across islands made up of there experiences over the years that are played out over 19 levels spread over multiple islands.

These levels consist of a beautiful art-style which sort of remind me of Oxenfree if that was in 3D. The core gameplay is centred around puzzles that are simple in nature based around when you move forward time moves forward and vice-versa for backwards.

This leads to some really clever puzzles as you have to get the light sphere that you see at the start of the game to the end of each level which seems rather straightforward but you come across obstacles that may be a planet which eats the light for instance, so you have to get rid of the planet and this is made more difficult as only Arina can carry the light whilst Frendt can use switches, which means you have to manipulate the flow of time to get past each level. 

When you do get past all the levels in an island, you get a sort of cut-scene which shows a memory linked to the level's you've just played.

The Gardens Between is a lovely looking and challenging yet simple puzzle game that is a great few hours of fun to play on a Sunday afternoon.

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