Lil Gator Game (2022)

Reliving your childhood memories in 400 words or less

Lil Gator Game is one of the goofiest, most charming games I’ve ever had the experience of playing. It lets you loose in a Sandbox where your literal objective is to make lots of friends, getting you in silly situations while you’re at it.

The story centers on two siblings, Lil Gator and Big Sis, playing a make-believe game centered on a video game legally separated enough from Zelda. They have fun adventures, create stories and fight bosses together. But everything changes as Big Sis goes to college to become a programmer, and is too busy to play with Lil Gator anymore. When Big sis comes to visit, Lil Gator cooks up a plan to get Big Sis to play with him again. He begins gathering close friends to create a new adventure for them to play, using cardboard cutouts of monsters, wooden swords and pot lids as shields.

Gameplay is mostly about exploration. It is understood that everyone in this island is “participating” in the make-believe game, so they have “quests” for Lil Gator to complete. The reward usually being confetti - this game’s currency - and friendship. The objective of the game is to gather enough friends to create a “castle town”. Throughout the game you encounter dozens of characters, each of them with a quest that involves some very funny dialogue and a simple objective. I’m glad the game never puts on the “imagination filter”, as everything looks poorly made with cardboard and tape, giving it a very DIY look.

The movement options in this game are buttery smooth. It really feels like a modern Zelda game, allowing you to run, climb, slide and paraglide across the map. I wouldn’t mind seeing a more action-oriented game in this engine. Actually, it’s a bit of a shame that the game doesn’t really provide a challenge when it comes to mastering the controls; you can do so many cool tricks, but the fact that you don’t really have to makes it a bit meaningless unless you’re speedrunning it, which would make you miss the hilarious dialogue.

We all played make-believe games with our friends about our favorite cartoons and video games, and Lil Gator Game captures that feeling of being a little kid in the playground perfectly. The funny writing, fantastic exploration and superb movement mechanics make this one of the most charming indie games I’ve played this year.