A Short Hike Review (Nintendo Switch)
Build Your Wings as You Go
We left the opening screen of A Short Hike running for a few minutes because it was so cosy. A boxy car is driving along a pixilated road, its engine noise mixing with the sounds of soothing cicadas and late-night passing cars. On the other side of the car, a distant mountain turns slowly, with bright-red pinpricks of streetlights shifting around it. The scene is beautiful and familiar-feeling and brought back memories of night-time travelling with our parents when we were kids.
After a button press, a text box pops from the car. An adult encourages the not-yet-seen protagonist, Claire, that she’s going to have a great time at summer camp. For now, the reason why Claire needs to be encouraged is left to your imagination, but the subtext is heavy with the same growing-pain melancholy seen in other indies like Night in the Woods and Celeste.
The game begins a few weeks into the trip. Claire — a bird — heads out of the woodland shack she’s staying in. Her aunt — another bird, of course — is sat by a wind-crackling campfire, and makes a comment that Claire seems preoccupied. Turns out Claire’s waiting for an important call. Well, her aunt says, there’s no signal anywhere except at Hawk Peak, so Claire will have to make her way to the top of the mountain from the opening screen if she wants to take the call.
Minutes into the game you’ll feel well-aligned with A Short Hike’s emotional premise. It’s a story about pushing out of your comfort zone. Claire seems daunted by the climb. Her aunt says it’s not a big deal. Everyone in the family has done the climb at some point in their lives, and if Claire makes it to the top then she’ll really appreciate the beauty up there. Apparently some amazing updrafts make flying there a dream. There’s that subtext again: Claire feels overwhelmed by what’s ahead of her — the content of the phone call — but if she’s brave and makes it through, she could gain so much.
The visuals do a lot of work drawing you into the game: this opening screen around the campfire is full of colourfully-presented detail with wind funnels swirling overhead, trees lilting on the outskirts of the screen, and a sea ebbing below. We enjoyed listening to the wind blowing through the fire too.
Exploration feels like running round the overworld in a retro top-down Zelda game, if the game had come out on a PlayStation 1. As you head off on your journey, you run into plenty of animals. The island is full of life. You’ll speak to mostly chirpy frogs, rodents, lizards, and other animals, who either set you mini fetch quests (for shells, or spades, headbands, and so on) or at the very least give you something to smile about through their well-written dialogue.
Some animals leave a big impression. We enjoyed the young squirrel who wanted to head out on a boat trip even though his/her dad wasn’t keen. When we first met them, the squirrel was lying on their back on the grass, seeming depressed, but as soon as we paid the rental fee to take the boat out and offered to let them come along for a ride, the squirrel seemed very happy.
Without spoiling anything some of these interactions begin their own secondary quest-lines. There aren’t many of these — the game itself is barely two hours long — but they’re well designed. With some extra space to breathe, these moments add depth to the character writing and further the impression that A Short Hike is nothing less than a tightly-constructed little delight.
Most quest items have been cleverly wound into your progression through the game, even if only subtly at times. With the bucket you can water plants that turn into jump pads. These launch you up the mountain and make backtracking much more bearable. With the pickaxe you can open up fast-travel cave routes. With sticks you can play diverting little mini-games, which unlock some useful rewards. You’ll also learn new abilities. Gliding is satisfying and easy to control. Climbing is obviously useful when you’re trying to summit a mountain. Then there’s running — and running alongside and chatting to a group of animal marathon runners is a fun way to spend a few minutes.
Of all the items tied into your progression none are more important than the golden feathers. Getting these usually requires a little more work than the other items. Claire, being a bird, can glide anyway, but every successive golden feather you find adds an extra flap — the equivalent to an extra jump — to her abilities. They also mean she can run longer, or climb higher. Near the end, with some bigger jumps to make and higher climbs to master, they become essential if you ever want to make it all the way to Hawk Point.
What’s more, these golden feathers and abilities entwine well with Claire’s emotional progress through the game. As she traverses the mountain with more confidence she starts seeming happier. Halfway up the mountain she sees her aunt below, still sat by the campfire, and she calls down and seems almost carefree.
The Switch version runs perfectly both hand-held and docked. Those Playstation 1-era graphics, in a chunky pixel style that can be swapped out for a smoother alternative, look great. And the music adds yet another perfect little cherry onto a near-perfect game. The higher up you go the previously jaunty tunes ease into something more icy and haunting.
But that sums up A Short Hike — it’s an emotional and effortless game, the kind of fine-tuned, well-observed experience you only get from a talented craftsperson — in this case solo indie developer Adam Roninson-Yu — who was able to make the most of their idea. In our opinion it’s lovely — and a must play.
CONCLUSION
A Short Hike is indeed very short, but every minute in its cosy game world feels well spent. With great design choices weaved into a fetch quest delight-athon, the game’s energy and (your engagement) never lags. We scaled a mountain. We interacted with abundant delightful animals, and we enjoyed every minute.
This is a perfect little gem and one of the easiest recommendations we’ve made all year.
PROS
- Effortless-feeling game design
- Warm campfire vibes
- Knows exactly how to make the most of its runtime
- An emotional and atmospheric gameplay experience that hits all the right marks
CONS
- I mean, it is very short, but then that’s clear from the title, so who are we to complain?!
