Video Game Review - Lost In Play

Rob reviews Lost In Play on Nintendo Switch...

Lost In Play is one of those games that makes you fall in love with it from its initial trailer. Filled with vibrant visuals that are reminiscent of many cartoon adventures, Lost In Play pulls you into its point-and-click world. 

Playing the roles of siblings Toto and Gal, you'll have to guide the siblings through a fantasy world of their creation to get back home. Time is of the essence if they're not home by nightfall, they'll be forever stuck in the strange fantasy world. It's a classic point-and-click adventure that's steeped within a classic kids' adventure story, but also one filled with imagination. Across the four-hour narrative, you'll see the siblings tackle some truly wonderful sights that pop straight from their imagination. From having a tea party with a Gnome to boardgame playing seagulls, and even crafting a monster out of a cardboard box. Each location offers plenty of fun and memorable locations, with some brain-puzzling conundrums to beat. 

At its heart, Lost In Play plays out like a typical adventure game. For the most, you'll be controlling Toto and Gal across plenty of fantasy-style locations while interacting with plenty of memorable characters, and puzzles to solve. The puzzles themselves aren't particularly taxing, with interactions being displayed by big and bold on-screen prompts and offering a simple solution. However, while these can be simple to adult gamers, smaller gamers may need a friendly prod in the right direction. 

Anyway, much like the overall ascetics, Lost In Play does give a few memorable puzzles to solve. My overall favourite is from the game's opening chapter which sees you scouring your bedroom in search of a way to wake up your snoring brother. Once this is achieved, he then storms downstairs - Game Boy in hand - to then zone out on the sofa. What then follows is an ingenious way of crafting a cardboard box monster that involves fixing a clock, scaring a cat, and waking up a dog. It's clever and had my 12-year-old and myself chuckling away as we worked together to solve the problem. 

You're never truly lost as to what items you use either. As you collect various nondescript tools, these will be stored within your character's inventory. When it's time to use an item, hovering the cursor over the interaction point will see a thought bubble pop up with what tools to use. This then allows the game to flow at a constant pace. While it's sometimes not obvious where an item is located, you're never left aimlessly wandering around like other point-and-click games. It also allows Lost In Play to be accessible for all gamers too!

It's not all puzzle solving either as Lost In Play features a wealth of mini-games to complete too. Quite often these games are puzzles themselves which need to be solved to then acquire an item needed for something else. The first of these puzzles you'll come across is a deceptively simple-looking one that involves herding sheep to land on certain squares. While it sounds easy, it did take me a few attempts to get it right. Logic puzzles aren't my strongest subject, and while the game did wonders in breaking down the mechanics for me, I often felt lost in my mind. Yet, once I'd managed to stumble onto the solution I felt a sense of stupidity that I hadn't solved it sooner. 

If you do come to a standstill, Happy Juice Games have also provided an in-game hint system and other quality of life enhancements. Aside from offering subtle hints to puzzles, you can also reset the logic games as well as call up the instructions at the press of a button. While I made a point of not using the hint button, my 12-year-old found the hints to be at the right level of hand-holding to not do all the work for you. 

When it comes to presentation, Lost In Play is a gorgeous display of art and animation. Each location is brought to life with a vibrant display of colour and line work. Characters, whether it is Toto and Gal or the wider cast each feel unique with their personalities and movements. There's plenty to like here too, with each character being charming in their own right. My personal favourite is the tea-swigging toad, who happens to look a lot like a certain Hypno-Toad...

Everything feels like you're playing a charming interactive cartoon. While the art style isn't as harsh, I picked up the vibes of Ahhh! Real Monsters - which they had me heading to YouTube for a history lesson. There's enough humour placed into the animation work that it keeps everything fresh but doesn't detract from the darker tones in the narrative either. 

All in all, Lost In Play is perfect for those Winter days stuck at home. It offers plenty of bite-sized puzzles, with all the grace, charm and humour of a children's television animation. Considering Happy Juice Games are a small developer team made up of three members, Lost In Play is one heck of an achievement. The team have crafted a stunning game that capitalises on the limitless wonders of a child's imagination and bottles it into a family-friendly puzzle adventure.

Lost In Play is certainly an experience that will stay with you long after its credits have rolled! 

Rating 9.5/10

Lost In play is available now and can be purchased via the Nintendo Switch eShop. 

A code was kindly provided for this review

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