However, you’re allowed to explore at night, should you so decide.

Progress is controlled by a day and night cycle you explore during the day, and camp at night, avoiding the malicious nocturnal creatures that roam about. Even after my twelve hour adventure, I was interested to go back and find the treasures I had missed on my first go around, or to look for secret areas using new Spritelings I had befriended. Narratively, it’s a simple and serviceable but endearing backdrop that lends itself to players getting to explore a world with a lot of tools at their disposal. While exploring, Wake and Kirby solve puzzles with their vacuum cleaner-esque gizmos, and also gather materials to craft all sorts of meals, tonics, and devices along the way. Each Spriteling also has its own quirks like being able to stick to nets or create clones. He and his friend, Kirby, befriend a race of cute creatures called “Spritelings,” who are happy to help out however they can by being thrown at various obstacles, predators, or materials that need to be gathered. Players take control of a runaway twelve year-old boy named Wake, who finds himself in a magical wonderland teeming with mythical fauna and is soon tasked with saving the forest from a sinister threat. The word “different” is an appropriate one to describe The Wild at Heart. But for a game that has obvious inspirations, it fares well in trying to stick its own neck out in a crowded industry where everyone is trying to be unique.

And to do so would get the idea across to those first hearing of The Wild at Heart. You could easily describe this title as blending the puzzle gameplay of “Luigi’s Mansion 3” with the resource gathering and crafting of “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”, along with a hefty amount of the “Pikmin” series.

And that is exactly what Moonlight Kids’ latest game, “The Wild at Heart,” is going for. It’s always a delight when you can tell that the passionate developers of a video game aren’t hiding what their inspirations are, and when they’re aiming to run with familiar gameplay concepts that aren’t often seen.

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