Sarah Thwaites Wants To Play Smaller Games | Winter Spectacular 2023
I’m more than a little late to the Winter Spectacular party – though I swear I have a good excuse. I was playing Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. On assignment, of course, but these things take time! I dove headfirst into RGG’s delectable turn-based RPG, spending over a hundred hours pulling apart its juicy narrative through laughs and tears. While my time with Infinite Wealth was incredible, after the review bubble popped, I was left yearning for the small and mighty games I’d taken on over the past, reminiscing on their unique stories and more approachable runtimes.
Unfortunately, what began as a sweet pitch idea to celebrate small games has turned into an indulgent listicle full of poignant stories that don’t rely on an incredible commitment to make their point. There’s nothing wrong with huge, novelesque experiences - some of my favourite games are enormous. But if you take anything from this list, it’s that collectively, as a consumer culture, we can all agree that bigger does not necessarily mean better, and this panoply of pint-sized games is here to celebrate that.
Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery
A trilogy for the ages, the Frog Detective series has been released as one jumbo package on consoles, and I will never shut up about it for the rest of time. What started as an indie darling has grown into a cult hit whose bite-sized runtime and earnest, irreverent comedy make each entry easy to finish in an afternoon.
Across the series, the world’s second-best detective and amphibian gumshoe, Frog Detective, is sent out to assist in a series of oddball cases where the culprit and crime are not what or who they seem like on the surface. With their trusty magnifying glass and a gullet full of naivete, you’ll talk to curious citizens and slowly unturn rocks.
The setting of the Frog Detective series jumps between a poltergeist-infested island to a sparkly magical forest and even the wild Wild West. Even so, the heartfelt humour lives on, only being amplified as you progress and engross yourself in these curious cases. To put it plainly, the Frog Detective series is a classic whodunnit, with a whydunnit and a whatdunnit mixed in for good measure.
Jusant
I’m not much of a climber, and yet, in the wake of playing Jusant, I’ve found myself googling ‘climbing centres near me’. The game takes place on an enormous cylindrical rock where vertical traversal consistently shifts the environmental design and atmosphere. To progress the story, you’ll need to navigate your way through caverns, nooks, and crannies by pacing out your energy to avoid taking a spill. The path up will reward you with world-building tidbits and charming retro-stellar architectural design by a community that has long since disappeared.
Jusant’s best sell is its soundtrack, which blends hope with solemnity and gets more spirited the higher you climb. Twinkling piano and string accompaniments frame Jusant’s grand moments as the melody delicately drifts away. I was always keen to push on and make my way to another eventual melodic swell, hoping to sate my curiosity and open the emotional release valve again.
The game is a quiet one, with only the wind, your jostling gear, and a weird lil guy to keep you company as your shoes scrape up rocky walls. This approach to sound design serves as a subtle force that helps build your momentum while navigating its more complex vertical puzzles. There’s nothing quite as pleasing as the mechanical crescendo when zipping down wires or the creaking of wooden buildings as you carefully apply weight to them.
As crude of an analysis as this may seem, Jusant feels like the antithesis of the meme of watching Family Guy with Subway Surfers on a second screen. It’s a focused experience that hones in on its singular navigational premise and lets the player breathe and interpret the story at their own pace. In the words of Miley Cyrus, “It’s the climb.
Thirsty Suitors
Dating sucks, or at least that’s what I assume. As someone well out of the seeing-people scene, my knowledge comes mostly from hollow Tinder ads and vapid Love Island confessionals. So, when the reviews for Thirsty Suitors dropped, my heart leapt at the thought of playing a punchy, turn-based battle game all about nuisance exes and relationships.
Thirsty Suitor’s protagonist, Jala, is a character whose ability to run from responsibility and avoid confrontation deserves a gold medal. After fleeing an awkward breakup, Jala has returned home to little fanfare and must reconcile with her hometown and family unit to break free from the past and move on for good.
Forgiveness isn’t so simple as Jala’s exes all have unique and often well-established issues with her behaviour. Taking them on requires facing some pretty scathing home truths. In turn-based combat loaded with QTE attacks, success leaves the horny vengeful ex vulnerable, with blows leading to honest exchanges that fill in story gaps and build up the narrative as you learn more about Jala.
A personal highlight in Thirsty Suitors is the chunky graphic novel visual style that blends 80s disco, and 90s grunge vibes, creating a vivid effect. Whatever task you undertake, whether it be battling amorous enemies or cooking restorative parathas, the environments and textures maintain a distinctly dreamy vibe that’s endearing right to the very end. The icing on the cake is that you can skate and grind to your heart's content as you explore—a Tony Hawk footnote in case the original pitch didn’t sell you on it enough.
Lil Gator Game
Endlessly endearing protagonist? Check. A heartwarming story about the power of making time for one another? Big check. In a world of cosy indie offerings, Lil Gator Game stands out.
As the eponymous alligator, you hatch a plan with your friends to do something so interesting that your otherwise occupied sister will have to put down their laptop and take notice. Simple on the surface, this goal snowballs into cardboard castle dreams and eventually a total island takeover. From a gameplay perspective, this means seeking out crafting materials by thrashing cardboard enemies, finding and uniting a playground's worth of kids, and indulging your inner child with youthful minigames like slime shooting and shield surfing.
I was locked in for a whole afternoon, hunting down the treasures hidden in rocks and treetops. The sun might have been setting outside, but the autumn light streaming through Lil Gator Game’s digital trees nudged me on. Finding everything on the map and completing all the missions really scratches that collectathon itch without having to take on any monotonous tasks.
Lil Gator Game reminded me so much of A Short Hike, another game where exploring the map is essential to scale the necessary heights. Here, too, the random hidden encounters you can stumble upon are often even more rewarding than the initial story pitch. To put it plainly, Lil Gator Game is a sincere distillation of the trope “The real treasure is the friends you make along the way”.
Venba
Of all the games on this list, Venba made me cry the most. Across its approximately 45-minute runtime, I was moved by its themes and left pining for the familial bonds in my life that we can all take for granted. An animated visual novel turned cooking simulator, Venba asks you to decipher recipes and connect generational dots as you follow the emotional rollercoaster that comes with immigrating countries and separating from your core support system.
More than what it means to me personally, Venba presents a moving story about assimilation and cultural identity. As unpredictable events and cruel vocational stumbling blocks push up against the family's warm interactions and sincere love for one another, it’s easy to be reminded of the many shades of grey that come with parenthood and growing up. It’s a story that hasn’t left me for months and a humbling reminder to consider how we live with the things beyond our control.
