Animal Well

Play it on: PS5, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Get some sleep
Buy it from: Steam

I’m on such a Metroidvania burn just now, currently spending an inordinate number of hours with last year’s Afterimage on my Xbox, alongside Tales of Kenzera: ZAU on PC, which has all just been shoved aside by the extraordinary Animal Well

Ethan reviewed the game for Kotaku, and he rightly said “you’ll obsess over it.” As it happens, I play a lot of games that look like Animal Well, so its gorgeously lit pixel art—while stunning—isn’t particularly novel. (I’ve recently been loving, but am terrible at, Ants Took My Eyeball, for instance.) I also play absolutely every Metroid-like platformer I can get my hands on. So what is it about Animal Well that is making me not only so happy, but also staying up so ludicrously late at night despite having 7am starts every morning?

I think it might be the yo-yo. But less facetiously, it’s the spectacularly tactile nature of the platforming. The little blob you play as bounces so perfectly, and with each gained ability feels leagues ahead. I deeply love how the game gives you a frisbee, but doesn’t tell you that it’s possible—well, vital—to ride on it. With every new item, there’s experimentation to discover its full potential. And yet, with all this, it doesn’t incessantly ruin all your fun with incessant boss fights! What a thing to behold. — John Walker