Adventure Pals Nintendo Switch

Cooperative gaming has gone by the wayside on almost every console except the Nintendo Switch, and thanks to great indie developers like Massive Monster, these couch experience is being kept alive. Recently, we had the chance to play through Adventure Pals, a fun and humorous title that plays incredibly well whether you are alone or with a friend. Either way, it’s a great experience, and a platformer that NEEDS to be played!

From the Developers

A game about friendship and exploration, The Adventure Pals has platforming fun, RPG elements and two-player local drop-in/drop-out co-op. Hop on the back of your giraffe, Sparkles, and discover 105 levels across five whimsical worlds filled with unique quests and characters, including zombie pirate cats, post-apocalyptic dinosaurs and hot dogs that poop explosive mines. Help a whale regain confidence, take a side in the battle between toast and dinosaur, travel to a legendary sunken city, decide the fate of a pirate election and more, all while leveling up to gain new and more powerful abilities!

Gameplay

Adventure Pals is a platforming adventure that spans across 5 worlds and dozens of levels. The core gameplay is about vertical and horizontal traversal through colourfully detailed worlds. There are things to collect throughout – finding those stickers and rainbow cupcakes can be tough! – and lots of hidden areas to explore. It’s a great experience that is incredibly accessible, allowing for a wide range of people to play. I personally played through most of the game with my 8 year old son, and it was fantastic!

The gameplay itself isn’t difficult at all. You’ll have a button that jumps and one that attacks, and that is about it. You’ll use your various abilities to solve environmental puzzles from time-to-time, and it works really well. Having giraffe companion – or a unicorn giraffe if you are playing as player 2 – adds a ton of charm to the game. This next line, however, should sell you on the game for how wacky it all is:

You play as a boy, riding across various worlds on a giraffe, attempting to save your father from being turned into a hotdog. That is it.

Story Elements

Yes, your dad has been kidnapped and is going to be turned into a hotdog! Do you have what it takes to save him? As you play through Adventure Pals you will meet a ton of unique characters. The light RPG elements the game offers will have you coming back to these characters to purchase items to aid on your adventure, as well as to obtain various side quests, all of which are fun to complete, and earn you rewards that make the effort worth it.

What’s great about all these characters is that they are varied, and deliver some fairly humorous dialogue along the way. Few games in the last year have made my laugh out load more than Adventure Pals, which is a pretty good testimate to the game as there have been a number of humorous releases lately.

Conclusion

Listen, Adventure Pals probably lacks the challenge hardcore platforming players would like to see in a release like this, but it’s fun throughout. Repetition never sets in, and I never got tired of the characters quirks. Overall, we give Adventure Pals a solid 8.5/10!