A Short Hike
Playtime: 1.5 Hours
Didn't play this game with any mind for completion, climbed up to the top of the mountain with 12 of the 20 feathers. I saw a decent number of events but there are tons of activities on the little island that I didn't see all the way through.
This is a very short and sweet game, very charming and relaxing on all accounts. I love the mix of the slightly pixelated artstyle with some very tight controls that makes the various available forms of traversal feel very smooth and enjoyable. It's especially important since that's the vast majority of what you're actually doing - jogging, floating, climbing, and swimming around to explore the little island you're camping on, with the only actual stated goal being to climb all the way up the mountain at its center.
Given such a simple objective, most of the actual fun of the game is from the experience of exploring the island and discovering the myriad of small activities and little storylines taking place among the other campers. The game is full of these kinds of small events, and they're all pretty goofy and charming. There's a kid who suspiciously asks for a bunch of seashells, there are some very enthusiastic novice climbers you can meet, a couple of pals playing a kind of volleyball rallying game in a random corner of the island in the middle of nowhere, some runners practicing for a marathon, etc. - the list goes on, and it's honestly very difficult to list them all. There's also a couple of other minigames - you can race one fellow camper across the island across a few "parkour" courses involving lots of running and flying, you can do some fishing once you're gifted a rod, and you hunt for treasures marked by some riddles you can find.
All of these cute little events are largely for the sake of finding "upgrades" to your character taking the form of golden and silver feathers. The golden feathers (as seen in the bottom corner of many screenshots) are used for flying, climbing, running - pretty much anything needed for traversal. The more you have, the greater your endurance - so you can flap your wings more, run/climb longer before you get tired and need to wait for them to recharge. In addition, there are a couple of much rarer silver feathers that further upgrade every action your character does (independently of golden feathers), meaning that every jump is higher, and your overall speed is faster. A greater number of these will naturally help your penguin traverse terrain much better, and are ultimately needed to successfully climb to the peak of the mountain to "end" the game.
It's hard to speak poorly of a game that executes what it wants to do so perfectly; despite the simple interactions, the characters (and character designs!) are very charming and full of life. The simple story and open exploration make for a relaxing and cozy experience that tapers to a close before it begins to feel old or boring.
