Lil Gator Game (Xbox Series X)
With a strong imagination, the world can be your playground. With some creativity, you can create incredible adventures no matter where you are or what’s on hand. The willingness of young children to use their minds to invent games that transcend what they have on hand is truly inspiring, and Lil Gator Game is about capturing that concept without embellishing it. This isn’t the kind of fantastical adventure where what a character thinks up will spring to life, instead you’re along for the ride and playing along, treating this simple bit of playtime as something much larger than it appears, and surprisingly, that makes it more magical than if this fictional medium was used to make the ideas truly come to life.
When the game begins, we see the antropomorphic little gator we’ll be playing as when they were very young. Eager to play an upcoming video game that is very heavily hinted at as essentially being a Legend of Zelda title, the gator can’t contain their excitement, so their older sister comes up with a game they can play to pass the time. Over the years, they play the game more and more, the older sister guiding the gator on flights of fancy that captivate the young gator, but the sister grows older and starts having responsibilities. Worried they’ll lose their beloved play time with their now more serious older sister, the little gator concocts a plan during her next visit. While the older sister is working on a class project, the little gator aims to create the most fun version of their adventuring game ever, hoping to reignite the spark in their sister so they can once again have a great time.
The little gator is energetic and optimistic, fully committed to the idea of the game to the point the name you choose for them as their “game name” ends up being what they’re referred to as throughout. To make the adventure bigger than any before, the gator has recruited their friends to come up with props and quests, the monsters you end up encountering actually being unmoving cardboard with creatures drawn on them with markers. With a toy sword and a pot lid for a shield, you set out to slay those unresponsive cardboard foes, but while your sister isn’t yet participating, thankfully your wider friend group proves to be incredibly creative themselves. That pot lid shield can be used like a sled, a shirt is given to you that can be held above like a parachute for gliding, and a monkey provides some armbands that give you the power to climb any wall. In fact, the game all but admits it is bringing over some ideas from The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild, but there is no danger in Lil Gator Game. You can fall from a mountaintop and be fine, and all the foes are just props that don’t fight back.
This may sound a bit plain at first. What’s the point in fighting cardboard props, after all? However, the cardboard creatures are scattered all over the island, hidden about as things to find using your movement abilities. They’re quickly dispatched and give you the materials they’re made out of when they break, the pretend game’s currency being this confetti you collect. You need to hunt down the fake monsters to be able to afford things like new looks for your adventuring gear, and more importantly, there are quests scattered all about the island that will sometimes require this creative approach to collecting funds. The little gator believes the best way to show their sister how amazing this game of imagination is will be to make a large cardboard village with the help of the people around the island, and to get people to go to your burgeoning little playground, you’ll need to help them out or solve their problems. Some of these are from people in on the game, someone might pretend to be trembling in fear of a nearby cardboard monster you can quickly slay, but others are more creative and meaningful. You might be told to do a quick race using your shield sledding ability, you might need to go find lost items, or you might have to manage your climbing stamina to reach areas to help people out. None of the interactions ever feel difficult, but they are varied and exist mostly as quick little games or amusing interactions. There are even some special rewards to find, little tools like a sticky hand or paper shurikens you can use as new bilities so you can swing about or have a brief target challenge that change the gameplay and keep things fresh.
The little gator’s closest friends are part of more involved quests. Your friend who wants to do well in school has a few classmates, their favorite subjects manifesting as some imagined archaeology or a bit of bug chasing. Another involves a group of friends who can’t agree what theme they want to base their contribution around, so while the game in general has a medieval fantasy spin to most of the made up games, here we can find someone who gives you a brief sci-fi adventure or Wild West diversion. The game really impresses with what it can whip up when the characters all suddenly commit to something, and a conversation can be spun into its own little game. After all, when you find the kid who can’t help but laugh at how they’re “invisible” despite being easy to see, shouldn’t you play along because you’re playing a game of imagination? So many characters willing to go with the flow lead to surprising delights, and it’s even cuter when they bump into something that emphasizes how wrapped up in the fiction of the game they get. When they see an ice cream man and want some, they briefly are brought back to reality when their confetti can’t buy the icy treat and they start trying to figure out how much change they can wrangle up. It’s adorable and hilarious to see where interactions can go, the gator at times swept up in the game’s design and always excited by what they find to engage with.
Ultimately, Lil Gator Game can almost feel like a collect-a-thon. To build that cardboard village requires finding friends and solving their problems, sometimes real, sometimes imaginary, and there are rewards for exploring every cranny and every hill for those fake monsters or other goodies. There is eventually a way to help you find whatever collectibles you’re missing too so you can potentially play the “entire game” both literally and in the context of this world, and it is an enticing prospect. The myriad of little distractions like slashing up the monsters keeps you active and climbing about like a kid on a jungle gym until you spot some new person who might have some kooky or creative task for you to complete. There’s a lot of heart and good vibes to be found, the game wholesome throughout with even people you encounter who aren’t playing the game at least not bringing any negativity to the gator’s playful day. That fading bond between the gator and sister does inject some realism that breaks out of the fantasy for a bit, but even with a brief dip out of the gleeful fun, it actually ends up making an excellent point and feels like it adds an extra meaningful layer to the video game you’re playing.
THE VERDICT: Lil Gator Game brings the wonderful well of possibilities a child’s imagination can conceive and makes them entertaining without much need for exaggeration. The little gator is certainly an athletic sort, their ability to climb all about a mountainous island perfect for the game they’re playing, but the goal is still focused on wholesome fun that is entertaining because of how it’s presented. Creative quests and funny characters make finding new people delightful while the simple tasks like slashing up the fake monsters gives you a reward for exploring. Somehow, Lil Gator Game transported the fun of making up your own games as a child into a video game and made the limited ability to represent your imagination just as much a part of the fun.
And so, I give Lil Gator Game for Xbox Series X…
A GREAT rating. Besides a few too many times where the quest is “defeat these cardboard monsters nearby”, Lil Gator Game provides so many entertaining and creative little diversions that don’t break the mold of its effective concept. Sure, in some game destroying an enemy mothership could be thrilling, but having that sci-fi kid use some balloons to make their cardboard mothership float up as a target to shoot at with a toy feels special and more creative. The delight doesn’t come from the difficulty, but seeing how these kids realized their ideas and cooked up quests with what they had on hand. It’s about how you do what you’re doing, how an interaction can become a chance for comedy or something that embodies the adventurous spirit of a driven youth. The simple little activities around the island are a great way of keeping the energy going, the player not just having to find a person to talk to in order to make progress on the grander journey to do everything there is on the island. To make things truly challenging feels like it would be missing the point, and while some things like the short races are a bit more demanding than most things in the game, it’s nothing that would hold you back from experiencing the whole adventure. If anything, Lil Gator Game just needed to be a bit of a bigger gator game. A few less of those repeat quests and some more characters to provide you creative quests that fit in the genius mold of this game’s literal fantasy adventure would keep the good times coming and captivate players even more.
Lil Gator Game is a game that the developer MegaWobble came up with for us to have a delightful and entertaining time, using what resources they had to make an adventure that is made all the more exciting if you play along. The curiosity in what might be just ahead, the joy in completing quests made just for you… through tapping into the uncomplicated cheer of youth, Lil Gator Game captures the wonder of childhood play expertly.