The Wild At Heart

The Wild At Heart (2021) is an adventure puzzle game where you play two children fleeing hardship. Unlike other adventures, play here extends beyond conversations, exploring and fetch quests. You interact with the world by collecting a swarm of small magical creatures, like the game Pikmin, for you to command. As long as you have enough of them, they can break stuff, collect loot, fight enemies and even build new paths.

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You play as 12-year-old loner Wake, who spends most of his days alone, holed up in his room busying himself tinkering with self-made inventions and getting lost in video games to escape the complications of his troubled home life. He runs away with his best friend Kirby and they unwittingly stumble into another world, full of magical creatures.

The game is set in a hand-drawn sequestered world rich with centuries and full of lore. Woods, caves, coastline and ancient shrines, are all full of puzzles to be solved and secrets waiting to be uncovered.

As you progress you discover more places to go and gather rare resources that enable you to build new structures, and items, and earn upgrades. But it's the gang of Spriteling creatures that really help. Their unique abilities combine with your trusty vacuum to take on all manner of enemies.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked The Wild At Heart 4 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 4 months ago.