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Should You Get...
Ittle Dew
The gaming world, as some have bemoaned, is flooded with grey and brown, grim and serious,
first person shooter dystopias, and many games aim for that aesthetic, to the point that
it often feels that when you've seen one, you've seen them all.
So when I saw Ittle Dew listed on Steam, with it's bright colors and a wonderful Wind Waker-esque
art style, I took notice. I took a moment to watch the trailer and found myself drawn
in by how fun and pleasant the art and the color and the humor were, and by how much
it reminded me of the classic Zelda gameplay I love. It was one of those wonderful moments
when a game has that little quality, that certain little shine and polish that catches
your eye and makes you sit up and pay attention when you would otherwise pass on.
I've since had the opportunity to play the game, and I'll tell you now: it does not disappoint.
The story is simple and never takes itself too seriously: Ittle Dew is a young girl with
a thirst for adventure and with her companion, Tippsie, a fox with fairy wings addicted to
health potions, she finds herself a castaway on a mysterious island teeming with strange
creatures and puzzles to solve.
The best way I can describe those first few minutes when you start up the game, is that
it made me think of the classic Nintendo games. It just has that polished feeling, that wonderful
sense that you're not using a piece of software, but that a little world is being brought to
life.
Ittle Dew learns from the local shopkeeper that she'll need to retrieve "The Artifact"
in order for him to build a raft to get her off the island, and so she sets off exploring
the island for the money to buy the tools she'll need to advance.
Ittle Dew is controlled from an overhead perspective and fights enemies with a stick, and later,
a sword. Combat is never difficult and is far from the focus of the game. Rather, gameplay
focuses on solving puzzles. There are only a few elements to the puzzles and you only
ever get four tools to solve them with, however, combining those tools and the elements you
use them on opens up increasingly difficult challenges.
This is much of the game's strength: The actions a specific tool can perform are clearly defined.
The sword can light things on fire and destroy enemies, the ice wand can freeze things, the
portal wand can create blocks and teleport objects to them. These tools can be used individually
or in conjunction on the objects in the world. Bombs can be detonated, destroying walls,
blocks can be pushed onto swicthes, torches can be lit or put out, ice blocks will slide
across the ground, etc. The world behaves in a way that is very simple and clearly defined,
yet presents ample opportunity for challenging gameplay.
It is precisely the simplicity and clarity of how everything in the game world works
that makes everything so satisfying. Again, it's much the same quality the Zelda games
p ossess. Simple actions like swinging your sword, stepping on a switch, or just moving
around the overworld just feel very satisfying and "pure," if you understand what I mean.
When combined with the handdrawn art style, the gorgeous animation, the humorous dialogue,
and likable characters you encounter, it altogther creates an experience that, to me, just clicks
in a wonderful way. Nothing feels out of place, extraneous, overdone, underdone, or unnecessary,
yet at the same time I get the impression there is a lot of potential here, and I'm
genuinely excited to see where the developers will take this game next.
To summarize, Ittle Dew is like playing through an episode of an animated TV show. It's wonderfully
colorful and pleasant in tone and humor and genuinely challenging at times, but never
too frustrating. It's terribly short, however, even if you decide to complete the bonus dungeon
(you should, too).
In a world where so many games bog you down with numbers and stats and are so grim in
tone, I found it deeply refreshing to play a game as simple, lighthearted and so charmingly
colorful, fun, and satisfying as Ittle Dew. By all means, you should get this game.