Zniw Adventure Review

Game: Zniw Adventure
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle
System: Steam (Windows & macOS)
Developer|Publisher: Azure Mountain | Kurki. games
Controller Support: No
Price: UK £6.19 | US $8.99 | EU € 7,39
Release Date: November 6th, 2020

Review code provided with many thanks to Azure Mountain

Edutainment Title

Zniw Adventure is a point and click adventure game where you play as a yellow dinosaur.  It takes its inspiration from adventure and edutainment titles from the ’90s. The later style is a type of game that sneaks in snippets of education to allow the player to learn as well as enjoy. Something I feel Zniw does pretty well especially if you’re a fan of dinosaurs. This is an easy title I would recommend for younglings or those looking for a more charming casual experience. So let’s talk more about this dinosaur adventure.

When Dinosaurs Brought Gifts

As Zniw you’re on a quest to find your mother the ultimate present to celebrate her hatch day. But a trip to the local marketplace soon turns to disaster and Zniw ends up far away from her hometown of Wajapulka. What starts as a simple fetch quest turns into something much bigger filled with many puzzles and challenges to overcome. An adventure Zniw and you the player won’t forget. 

The game is presented with an appealing hand-drawn cartoon-like art style. It runs and plays like an old children’s cartoon which I quickly warmed to. There are plenty of environments to explore like jungles, caves and towns filled with a wide variety of dinosaurs. This game has no violence or gore and is absolutely suitable for all ages. Just a lot of very warm friendly dinosaurs and a few grumpy ones too. The game is only presented in English or Polish text boxes so basic reading skills are needed to get the most out of this.

If you do play with particularly young children one suggestion would be to play the game with them and read the text (bonus points if you use a funny voice). Young folk will most likely warm to the animations and amusing dialogue. There are many weird and wonderful characters to interact with. The soundtrack has a nice mix of guitar tracks that are initially quite nice to have on in the background. The slight niggle is this being a point and click game, some tracks do become a touch repetitive. If you do like it you can get the score totally free on Steam when purchasing the game, a big plus in my book. 

Point and Click

As the formula goes with a point and click game you essentially enter an area to collect various items then use said items in the right place to advance. You only need to use the mouse to play this game which is easy to use. For movement simply click on the screen with your cursor where you want to move Zniw to. On each screen, there are usually various objects or characters to interact with. These objects are easily highlighted for the player changing your cursor’s colour to signify an object of interest. By holding the mouse button down you can choose from a variety of actions like talking, looking and using.

Sometimes by talking to a character first a new interactive option will appear in the actions menu. So if you get stuck with the old age formula or trying every action on everything will see you through without extra assistance. Kids will likely be Ok so long as they read the dialogue carefully. But if you are a parent flying in to save the day there are some playthroughs online or walkthroughs for quick reference if you’re unsure how to proceed. You are able to save the game anywhere so this is an easy one to dip in and out of.

Extra Content

You’re looking at an adventure that will take around eight hours to finish, maybe more if you want to interact and see everything on offer. That runtime will significantly shrink if you decide to go through the game again. During the game, you can pick up collectable pearls which will unlock concept art and some pretty cool retro-inspired mini-games (these use keyboard controls). There’s also an encyclopedia to dive into which talks about everything you have interacted with, even offering real facts about dinosaurs. It’s a pretty nice package at a low price.

Conclusion – Wholesome Family Friendly 

Zniw Adventure is a family-friendly dinosaur adventure suitable for absolutely anyone that loves point and click titles or dinosaurs. The game does an excellent job of entertaining with its fun sense of humour whilst also slipping in some interesting snippets of education if you’re willing to give it a look in. One I would easily recommend to share with young gamers or those that just want to go back in time and enjoy a wholesome adventure with dinosaurs. 

Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot