This Week I Have Been Mostly Playing…
Hidden Folks on Nintendo Switch
I remember when I was hardcore, I could game for 12 hours straight, almost blind drunk and still be kick ass at Halo. Depressingly, age is catching up with me meaning even the commute home was tough to stay awake. A gentler game is required and thankfully I have finally gotten around to playing Hidden Folks. It’s basically a Noir Where’s Wally for your iPad. You have to hunt down a selection of items and people across theme levels that can be very intricate. It’s very relaxing but still a challenge.
It’s only in black and white but the sheer skill and variety in the hand drawn images is incredible. There are several regions including Forest, Dry Lands, Snow (not quite a land type but sure!) with a selection of levels within. Each level has a bottom bar with a list of people and items to find with the highly detailed animated map above. Players must follow the clues for each and click around the map trying to find them.
To begin with; the area of each level is very small but then they become hugely populated by hundreds of people who deliberately look similar. Who keep bloody waving at you! I have been caught out a fair few times. You can of course just spam the A button and see what sticks but it would take forever on the bigger maps whilst robbing you of the joy of decrypting a clue.
The biggest difference from Where’s Wally are the animations, making this feel very much alive. Whether it’s the butterflies fluttering around the forest or the abominable snowman answering the door bell (I shit you not). Clicking and dragging will actually open doors, cause snowballs to career down hills and many more objects can be interacted with to find secrets.
What really makes me laugh again and again are the sounds, which have been deliberately made by humans to mimic everything and anything in game. Mashing the button on a car and hearing a dude just honk is so funny to me. As is the bird going cheeeeeeEEP! This is basically where the design goes above and beyond anything else out there.
It’s on mobiles and tablets, Switch and PC but it seems tailor made for touch screens. Only a few hours long; it will be memorable. As with most of the time this game really isn't for everyone but is worth a look if you want to chuckle while killing some time. Especially if you are also no longer hardcore like me….
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