Lil Gator Game (2022) [PC] critique

It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.

-Michel de Montaigne

Let’s have a show of hands: when you were younger, how many of you played imaginary games that put you either as or beside your favorite movies, comic book, or video game heroes? How many of you ran around stomping mushrooms like Mario or running as fast as possible as Sonic? How many jumped off the roof or stairs or your bed with a t-shirt for a cape imagining themselves Superman? Obviously, I can’t see how many of you are admitting to it, but I’m betting it’s a lot. Lord knows I did it myself. Lil Gator Game is a callback to that youthful exuberance of imagination inspired by a love of games.

The quintessential Not-Link hero, Lonk

There’s really no question as to the inspiration behind Lil Gator Game: a love of Zelda in every incarnation, with some extra special affection for Breath of the Wild. As someone whose childhood was during the NES and SNES eras, it’s strange to think that for someone Lil Gator’s age, Breath of the Wild is their childhood Zelda. I tend to default to Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time myself. Whether your favorite Link is a batch of green pixels or a fully-detailed 3D model, though, we can all appreciate the memory of picking up a stick or a cardboard tube and pretending we’ve just pulled the Master Sword from its pedestal. The whole of Lil Gator Game, from the characters to the gameplay, is a love letter to Link, his adventures, and the imaginary games that start with drawing a sword from a stone.

The 8-Bit Review

Visuals: 8/10

Graphics-wise, Lil Gator Game could not be more perfectly suited. The simple shapes and bright natural colors give the perfect feeling of playing outdoors and make the humanoid animal people feel natural for their setting. Likewise, the cardboard enemies look and feel like things made by kids, colored with markers and crayons to the best of their ability.

There’s a reason slimes are classics.

What really caught me by surprise about the graphics is how much care was put into how Lil Gator moves. He’s a gator, after all. He’s a critter not meant for land. When he walks, he swings his legs and uses his hips for an adorable waddle. Gator knees aren’t meant for walking. When he hits deep enough water, though, that’s where our gator shines. He tucks his arms in and swooshes through water like, well, a gator.

So why only an 8 out of 10 if I liked it so much?

There’s not a whole lot of diversity in the “enemies” for one. A couple of slimes, skeletons, and other typical monsters round out the baddies, but there could have been more. After all, a whole bunch of kids made them. While there’s a good variety, they mostly stuck to the same groupings: skeletons, bones and spears. Slimes. Plant monsters. I wanted to see occasional areas with monsters clearly made by someone else, or by someone who put less care into the groupings. A little bit more childlike randomness. Also, it’s somewhat easy to get lost in areas like the woods, where everything looks alike. It’s not hard to reorient yourself, but what it boils down to is that I wanted a little more diversity in the setting visuals. There are areas like a vampire’s cave, but it was lacking in bats. I wanted more of that.

Audio: 8/10

For an adventure game, the music is calm and relaxing, a little upbeat. Flutes and gentle strumming welcome you into the game in a kind of starter town theme, and once in, different tunes play for whichever zone you’re in. They’re all cheerful, with flutes and xylophones tapping out rhythms. A lot of care was put into sound effects, with details like jumping sounding different depending on whether you’re on leaves, wood floor, stone, or dirt. There’s no variety for character talking, though, just the same bubbly effect. I don’t think full voice acting would have suited the game, but at least a little more variety in the talking sounds for the type of character would have gone a long way.  There’s not really much room for complaint, in general.

Narrative: 9/10

Once upon a time, Lil Gator and his big sister played an amazing game! Lil Gator was the legendary hero, and Big Sis the gamemaster, providing challenges and cardboard monsters and awarding points and levels for Lil Gator’s accomplishments. They ran all over the islands together playing this game, until something terrible happened.

Big Sis grew up and went to college. 

She’s back home for fall break now, and all Lil Gator wants to do is play with her, but Big Sis has a Big Project and no time for little kid games. Perhaps, though, if Lil Gator and his friends work hard enough to remake the game that once kept Big Sis enthralled, she’ll want to play again. They’ve put cardboard monsters all over the place, and everyone has a quest to complete. Everyone’s working together to make the playground into the coolest fantasy town, too! Once Big Sis sees everything that everyone’s done, she’ll definitely want to play, right?

Hey, Sis, please look up from your computer?

You can see the skeletons and spears right there, Sis…

Gameplay: 9/10

Your friends are mostly hard at work turning the island into the biggest game ever! However, three of Lil Gator’s best buds, knowing Big Sis is all grown up and too old for games, have gone on to other games of their own. As Lil Gator, explore the open world island, find your friends, complete their quests, and convince your besties that Sis hasn’t forgotten how to play. The gameplay’s your basic modern adventure game. Climb with a stamina bar, soar with your “glider”, slide on your shield, and jump and platform your way from one side of the world to the other. While Lil Gator Game’s gameplay is not unique, its bright cheerfulness, the types of quests that children would invent (like “Do a flip!” or “I lost my retainer…”), and silly cardboard monsters make the familiar exploration refreshing.

Build Whatever You Put Your Mind To

Don’t try this at home, kids. Trust me, it doesn’t work.

On top of the general open-world adventure mechanics, you also have a little building mechanic. As you explore the world, you’ll find things that could be all kinds of heroic gear: hats, swords, and shields, as well as extra things that can help you float a little longer, shoot distant enemies, and more. While sometimes you get handed the new toy, other times you have to take the inspiration and build it yourself. Luckily, all the cardboard creeps you knock down leave behind construction paper that you can use to make stuff. Mix and match typical hero looks with space gear, artsy stuff that leaves splashes of color, or the classic princess wand. Build yourself into the hero you want to be!

Themes: 10/10

I don’t think I can actually go into too much detail here without spoiling some important moments for the game, so I’ll be vague. While Lil Gator Game is about a kid playing in their backyard, the story with Big Sis and some of your friends tackles some complex emotions that kids with older siblings or cousins may experience, like losing interest in playing or prioritizing things like work or the concept of “cool” over childish games. It’s not a deep or emotional game. Most of your time won’t be spent contemplating the themes. That said, it knows what it wants to say and it says it clearly without hitting you over the head with the messages. Like many lessons meant for kids, it kneels down, pats you on the shoulder, tells you what it wants to say, then sends you back off to play. 

Challenge: 7/10

Lil Gator Game is far from hard to play, but don’t mistake that for the developers making everything too easy. It’s an open-world game, after all. The map may not be huge, but for a little gator, finding everything there is to find involves a great deal of jumping, climbing, and soaring. There’s several dozen kids around the map with side quests for you and hundreds of cardboard monsters tucked around corners or hovering on balloons. These kids got creative. 

It’s easy to get lost around the map. However, one of the first things you’re told upon setting foot on the big island is “when you get lost, look for the biggest landmarks.” Every location of note is next to some large object, such as a windmill or a giant tree. All you have to do is find someplace high up to reorient yourself. And don’t worry about missing a few monsters or pots or kids. You’ll eventually get some help finding everything.

Oh no, our friend is surrounded by monsters!

Uniqueness: 8/10

Those of you who read my Lost in Play review may be thinking that Lil Gator Game sounds like something you’ve seen before. Don’t be fooled, though. While the two games have similar concepts built around kids playing kid games, they’re both very different. Where Lost in Play has you wondering what’s real and what’s imaginary, Lil Gator Game never questions reality. You are a kid; you are playing a game. You are not in danger and the only risk is not getting Big Sis’s attention. The game brings nothing new to the table gameplay-wise, but the combination of children-at-play with open world adventure games is fresh and clever! It makes perfect sense. It works in a light-hearted way that’s easy to enjoy and hard to put down.

Personal: 9/10

Look, I’m biased. You all know I am by this point. I like indie games, and I like games for kids about kids. I like trips back to my youth and dreams of lighter days, before taxes and jobs and all that tedious stuff that comes with being an adult. Lil Gator Game scratches all my favorite itches: indie, youthful, bright, silly, sweet, and short. Was it Game of the Year 2022 for me? Probably not, but it’s definitely in my top 5.  

We would like to thank Megawobble and Playtonic Friends for a copy of Lil Gator Game for this critique.

Aggregate score: 8.5

Maggie Maxwell spends most of her days buried in her fiction writing, only coming up for air to dive into the escapism of video games, cartoons, or movies. She can usually be found on Twitter as @wanderingquille and @MaxNChachi or streaming on Twitch with her husband, also as MaxNChachi.