Imagine you were chased maniacally by a mutated, smaller and fatter version of uncle Vernon from the Harry Potter series, and this would in some way describe the level of terror you'll be faced with in Little Nightmares- a horror game which takes childhood nightmares and wields them in a wholesomely grotesque way as to unnerve you without outright scaring you in the process-unless the site of a yellow hooded figure feasting on rats makes your stomach turn that is. What outwardly looks like a pretentious indie platformer is given a boost by a few shock-inducing and excitable encounters, making for a nightmare you'd want to remember instead of forget.
Adorning the yellow raincoat of a female child called Six, you fittingly explore a nightmarish and dreary world known as The Maw with curiosity and dread. Like Playdead's Limbo and Inside, your movement is scrolling from left to right, where your main actions include pulling levers, activating switches and locating keys to unlock doors for the purpose of clambering to safer grounds and away from pursuers, while occasionally stopping and satiating your appetite because you are in desperate need of sustenance. Each room is a puzzle to solve, and if you aren't finding a way out of somewhere, you're playing a mortifying game of hide and seek with gargantuan monsters who wouldn't look out of place in a Tim Burton film. You always tread fearfully in Little Nightmares and Tarsier studios have thoughtfully blended ideas from its previous works as well as its esteemed inspirations to craft a miniature, mild and meticulously macabre horror adventure.
The settings of Little Nightmares are dioramas in structure and your character can bop in and out of them similarly to how you navigate levels in LittleBigPlanet. Libraries, kitchens and restaurant tables are some of the myriad of places Six will wind up, made all the more foreboding knowing there are predatory inhabitants lurking inside of them-though they're often distracted long enough for you to get the slip on them and thus getting out of dodge from imminent danger.
Adorning the yellow raincoat of a female child called Six, you fittingly explore a nightmarish and dreary world known as The Maw with curiosity and dread. Like Playdead's Limbo and Inside, your movement is scrolling from left to right, where your main actions include pulling levers, activating switches and locating keys to unlock doors for the purpose of clambering to safer grounds and away from pursuers, while occasionally stopping and satiating your appetite because you are in desperate need of sustenance. Each room is a puzzle to solve, and if you aren't finding a way out of somewhere, you're playing a mortifying game of hide and seek with gargantuan monsters who wouldn't look out of place in a Tim Burton film. You always tread fearfully in Little Nightmares and Tarsier studios have thoughtfully blended ideas from its previous works as well as its esteemed inspirations to craft a miniature, mild and meticulously macabre horror adventure.
The settings of Little Nightmares are dioramas in structure and your character can bop in and out of them similarly to how you navigate levels in LittleBigPlanet. Libraries, kitchens and restaurant tables are some of the myriad of places Six will wind up, made all the more foreboding knowing there are predatory inhabitants lurking inside of them-though they're often distracted long enough for you to get the slip on them and thus getting out of dodge from imminent danger.
Evading the beastly behemoths is all about timing and knowing when to sprint away from their greedy grasp. Hiding under tables and inside cubby holes can prove to be safe refuge, but these hostile dwellers can get grabby and tear you away from safety, but more often than not they show they've graduated from the MGS grunt school of patrolling A.I because they may look underneath where you're hiding and see you clearly but act as if nothing is there at all.
Bounding about is all well and good except when you need to contend with the poor platforming hindrances you'll no doubt encounter on your way to completing this modest three-hour otherworldly jaunt. Running across beams is too precarious at times and will lead you falling to your death, and making a major escape can be mooted if you don't press the action button hard enough and nail the timing correctly. This iffiness in a three hour game is quite inexcusable because more time is devoted to these petty frustrations. If Little Nightmares had been several hours longer, the problems would shrink considerably because they wouldn't appear as noticeably.
If you ever fancied using a rope of sausages like a makeshift vine to swing on-Little Nightmares has you covered because part of the thrill of Little Nightmares comes from the breakneck sequences where you feel you're almost vanquished by cloying hands, but get out of trouble at exactly the right moment-it's a thrilling feeling, one that is able to propel Little Nightmares in its later stages before it sadly ends minutes after it starts becoming something special awkward platforming be damned.
There's nothing quite like the feeling of hiding from danger and Little Nightmares carries this fear throughout its three hour length, brimming in an intimidating mood where you feel uncomfortable but assured that you can flee from the perils that threaten to eat you or boil you in a broth. Bemoaning the stodgy platforming and the meagre completion time can quell Little Nightmare's otherwise delightful qualities, but it's a shame the garishly enchantingly Maw doesn't deliver more moreish morsels of gameplay-but if you want to relive a fictionalised childhood nightmare, you can do a lot worse than Little Nightmares.
Bounding about is all well and good except when you need to contend with the poor platforming hindrances you'll no doubt encounter on your way to completing this modest three-hour otherworldly jaunt. Running across beams is too precarious at times and will lead you falling to your death, and making a major escape can be mooted if you don't press the action button hard enough and nail the timing correctly. This iffiness in a three hour game is quite inexcusable because more time is devoted to these petty frustrations. If Little Nightmares had been several hours longer, the problems would shrink considerably because they wouldn't appear as noticeably.
If you ever fancied using a rope of sausages like a makeshift vine to swing on-Little Nightmares has you covered because part of the thrill of Little Nightmares comes from the breakneck sequences where you feel you're almost vanquished by cloying hands, but get out of trouble at exactly the right moment-it's a thrilling feeling, one that is able to propel Little Nightmares in its later stages before it sadly ends minutes after it starts becoming something special awkward platforming be damned.
There's nothing quite like the feeling of hiding from danger and Little Nightmares carries this fear throughout its three hour length, brimming in an intimidating mood where you feel uncomfortable but assured that you can flee from the perils that threaten to eat you or boil you in a broth. Bemoaning the stodgy platforming and the meagre completion time can quell Little Nightmare's otherwise delightful qualities, but it's a shame the garishly enchantingly Maw doesn't deliver more moreish morsels of gameplay-but if you want to relive a fictionalised childhood nightmare, you can do a lot worse than Little Nightmares.
STORY: 7/10
GAMEPLAY: 7/10
PRESENTATION: 8/10
LIFESPAN: 6/10
SCORE: 7/10
A delectable slice of Burtonesque horror, Little Nightmares will pull you in with its dripping atmosphere and intimidating encounters-just be mindful of iffy platforming and a short runtime. Time to play hide and bleak.