Milo’s Dream (Switch)

Milo the dog was not a video game hero I ever expected to see again. Originally appearing in the short and simple action game Milo’s Quest, he was roped into adventure when he dug up the cursed bone of King Old Skull, the humble pup’s debut video game cute and serviceable enough for what it was trying to do. The creator lightUP went on to make many other short and sweet pixel art games since Milo’s Quest, but almost four years later we now have Milo’s Dream that looks to expand on what the original game did in little but meaningful ways.

 

Milo’s Dream kicks off because the regular dog Milo has once again dug up a bone he shouldn’t have. This time though, the bone puts him to sleep, transporting himself to a land of fairies who need help after King Big Flea conquered the land. While Milo enters as a fairly typical pooch despite having saved the world previously, being in the dream world and having a helpful fairy companion tagging along (that a second player can even take control of) opens him up to doing more than his charging tackle attack. You’ll gain magical spells as you fight your way through the big bugs that serve under King Big Flea, and Milo’s Dream also tries to expand its combat a bit by becoming a light top-down action role-playing game.

In Milo’s Dream, you’ll travel across a small interconnected world, various bugs pestering as you explore. Milo starts off with a running tackle that is his only way to hurt the bugs initially, and in the opening areas this does its job well enough. You are charging towards your enemies which can make you vulnerable, but until you start facing foes that hold their ground or fire upon you, you can usually bump baddies back with the charge and repeatedly attack to quickly wipe them out. Later areas do start to present more dangerous bugs like the exploding pillbugs you might not want to be too close to, and that’s where your magic can help a touch. Milo will eventually unlock elemental attacks, the dog able to launch things like a rock blast, fireball, or ice shot to hurt enemies from afar. For the most part the spells are just gradually stronger variants of each other, but you will see little extra effects like ice sometimes freezing an enemy or fire igniting grass patches. These aren’t ever required uses nor do they gain you that much of an edge, but despite the general level of challenge in Milo’s Dream being rather low, you can at least find yourself using your spells when they feel like a convenient tool.

 

Bosses in Milo’s Dream are mostly all based on the same formula though unfortunately. A boss like a giant lady bug or dragonfly will fly up in the air where you can’t reach them and you need to either wait or bait them into landing when you can strike. Later bosses will attack while airborne to give you a little more to do, but it’s a format that feels overdone while being fairly straightforward. Instead of big battles ending up the highlight, exploration ends up a pretty big element of the Milo’s Dream experience. When you enter an area you might not technically need to fight all the baddies nearby, but Milo will gradually level up through combat, gaining more life and more magic power as he grows. Since taking out most baddies is quick and relatively easy, clearing out a room feels like a smart investment, and bugs often will drop bones when defeated. Bones serve as currency at the different shops you find across the small regions, the player able to purchase more upgrades to health and magic but also able to grab more useful items like a map and some markers that will tell you if there’s a treasure to find in a specific space. You will need to fight often if you want to get enough bones for buying everything useful and Milo’s Dream isn’t a hard game to fully complete, a 102% run not even likely to hit 2 hours. There is one more part of Milo’s Dream’s gameplay design though and one that’s handled a little oddly, puzzles existing across the map but at first they’re impossible to complete.

During the first two regions of your adventure, Milo’s Dream will have barrel pushing puzzles that you just aren’t allowed to engage with yet. Despite there being clear treasure rewards for doing so, you are just meant to walk past these puzzles until you get the item that lets you move the barrels later, after which you can then go back and get your rewards. The interconnected map isn’t too difficult to cross when you want to, a few rooms with rolling spike logs or arrow traps to dodge the only thing really slowing it down since enemies aren’t overly hostile. Still, going back to earlier areas isn’t that rewarding, most treasures being bone hoards rather than exciting finds. However, the barrel pushing puzzles can get a tiny bit challenging, the player needing to figure out the order before starting them or sometimes having to avoid traps as they move everything into place.

 

The puzzles break up the usual emphasis on simple combat well enough and might have been better as a present part from the start, this perhaps some odd effort to invoke Milo’s Quest’s design choice of letting you choose between action or puzzles or just having both in the adventure at once. It’s an odd bit of early confusing friction in a game that is otherwise fairly gentle and easy, even a death just causing you to drop some of your bones rather than losing much progress. The energetic chiptune music and colorful pixel art still help keep things bright and cheery even in snowy areas or the final lava zone, but Milo’s second adventure still doesn’t have any standout element that makes it more than a nice breezy adventure for those seeking a short low pressure experience.

THE VERDICT: A bit more magic and fantasy help Milo’s Dream expand some from its simple predecessor, but even with an interconnected world and some RPG progression, it’s still a pretty straightforward adventure with low pressure combat. Exploration adds a bit more to do and some of the barrel pushing puzzles require some thought, Milo’s Dream able to hold your interest some by keeping you busy and rolling out small changes like new bug enemies. Low difficulty and limited variation in areas like the boss battles does let it down some, but the cute colorful world and swift and breezy action still make it a nice enough way to spend two hours for those wanting a truly tiny action RPG.

 

And so, I give Milo’s Dream for Nintendo Switch…

An OKAY rating. Milo’s Dream has a lot of the simple parts of a game’s design that hold your interest in small ways. You need bones and experience so you go around tackling bugs, each room able to offer something you need in that way. It does feel strange the game denied you the ability to engage with its puzzles earlier, but they also add a quick little activity as you move from place to place, the player not feeling like they need to work too hard to succeed but getting the basic satisfaction in gradually improving or working towards a short term goal like affording the map. There isn’t much that really serves as a specific draw to make a player want to play Milo’s Dream over other titles though. It does have a pleasant look to it and some catchy music at times, and it might be a comfy little quest for younger players or gamers who don’t want too much of a challenge, but Milo’s Dream only really starts to poke at the kind of extra variety that would make it a more interesting adventure. The later bugs like the pillbugs won’t challenge you too much but still ask you to dodge and attack at the right times, the barrel pushing involves taking time to figure out a room layout with the easy option of resetting the room by leaving if you made a mistake, but then we have the bosses all going for the same tricks so fighting them ends up feeling like something you have to do rather than want to do. Magic looked like it had room to have more flexible uses, even just quick simple puzzles involving something like the fire’s ability to catch on grass something that could have held your interest a little longer.

 

While it has a little more going on in it than Milo’s Quest, this unexpected sequel doesn’t do as much as it should have to make Milo’s second quest worth checking out. Milo’s Dream is still fairly inoffensive, brisk and visually appealing and giving you enough little things to do that you feel like you’re always doing something even if it’s just gathering bones and leveling up. It is very much an okay game, not having a strong enough identity to make it stand out but not making any huge errors that would make it rough to play. With developer lightUP making so many pixel art adventures so rapidly it likely meant Milo’s Dream didn’t receive the thought and care needed to make it something special, but during the short time it takes to beat it, it’s a pleasant enough experience and one that might be a decent first action RPG for a particularly young gamer.