Review ‘Legend of the Skyfish’ (Switch)

Game: Legend of the Skyfish
Genre: Adventure Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer|Publisher: Mgaia Studios/Ratalaika Games S.L.
Age Rating: US 10+| EU 7+
Price: $7.99 | £7.99 | €7,99
Release Date: 30th August 2019

Thanks to Ratalaika for kindly providing a review code!

Human Hubris At It’s Finest

A simpler story start could scarcely be sought, she said with a squawk. Woo! Now that you’ve enjoyed all that alliteration, I will say in plain-speak that ‘Legend of the Skyfish’ doesn’t mess about with twenty minute intros. Viewing a quick, pleasant, fully-voiced slideshow gives players the gist, and bim-bam-boom you are on your way to adventure-puzzle town. The story in a nutshell: human hubris releases a corrupted creature (the Skyfish) from the deep. Skyfish denizens enslaved your brother and most every other human, but you were spared (by accidentally being tossed overboard into the sea) and saved by the Moonwhale (what a CUTE creature with a KEWT name!) and now it’s time to rescue your brother and get revenge on the deep!

You are now Little Red Hood (oh how quaint!). Riding on the back of your buddy the Moonwhale (kyaa!) you are conveyed from island to island and use your trusty fishing pole to swing and hook and whack your way through enemies, puzzles, and traps in order to break every island’s evil fishy-totem.

Makin’ My Way Downtown, Casting Fast, Fishies Pass, and I’m Bro-Bound

Controls are straightforward: move using the left joystick, attack with the L button (or any of the A/B/X/Y buttons), aim your fishing line with the right joystick and cast your hook with R. This simple scheme will easily and quickly having you hook-shotting around and whip-whapping enemies quickly and efficiently.

Envision Beautiful Things

The game is a visual delight. I really enjoyed the artwork, colours, and design of the characters, enemies, and scenery. It gave me an enjoyable fairy-tale vibe. Each little plant that wiggles as you run through it looks like it has been lovingly created. My only visual gripe was sometimes finding it difficult to distinguish which plants were barriers and which weren’t, this little nit-pick led me into some lost hearts a few times when enemies were coming at me and it turns out that tiny bush-sized mushroom is actually a mighty impenetrable wall.

Equally as pleasant, and contributing to said fairy-tale vibe, was the game’s music and sound. Little Red Hook’s cute little cheer after destroying a totem made me feel like the all-important helper in her strong-female-character-fish-butt-kicking-ness. All the enemies have cute little noises as well, even if they are “ouch stop hitting me with your… oh no I’m dead” noises.

How Much Cute Could A Cute-Whale Cute?

Here are the things I really liked: Little Red Hood being a strong female character. I am all about ladies kicking butt and taking names. The Moonwhale; encompassing two things I love – the moon and whales – every time I saw its cute little face I felt my heart overflow with squee until the squee came out of my mouth and I had to shout “SQUEE”! The art, sound, and atmosphere of the game were also much to my tastes.
I appreciated the simple story start: here’s who you are and why you are here, now let’s get to the game! Equally, I appreciated the simple controls.
While there are only three boss fights, I also found them to be very fun and engaging – in fact I wish the game had much more of them.

Little Niggle-Wiggles

Some things that niggled me: I felt the game was too kind to me. I didn’t feel challenged. For example, some enemies in the game fire these electro-ball-projectiles at you when you come near; there were several instances when that ball would be coming straight for my face, but if I managed to hook the enemy it would disappear right before hitting me. I felt like I wanted the game to punish me for silly mistakes like that. As someone who has been gaming for the whole of the life they can remember (who knows what I did as a baby…), I felt I breezed through the game much to easily.

But then I remembered that this game is rated PEGI7, and I realized that this is a perfect kind of puzzle game for young people to cut their teeth on. It’s beautiful, extremely cute, and I could feel the love and effort the creators put into it.

Final Verdict

3 stages, 45 levels, one adorable whale, and a little lady kicking butt. This little adventure puzzle game will visually satisfy you. And heck, if you’ve got littler-ish ones at home and want a cute game to share with them, you can’t go wrong with this game at this price!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVED the Moonwhale?! UGH, SO KEWT! I would buy a shirt with the Moonwhale on it so fast! I’m serious… you hear that Ratalaika Games SL?