Have you ever wondered, watching those cute little lizards scurry over the rocks and squeeze into holes you didn't even know existed, what the world looks like from their perspective? The team at Super Rare Games allows you to experience that in their new Nintendo Switch title, Gecko Gods.
This game has been very interesting to me since its first presentation last year, and it has been waiting on my wishlist for a long time because it didn't have a defined release date. Now that it's finally with me, was it worth the wait?
As I mentioned at the beginning, in this interesting 3D puzzle adventure, you will explore a mysterious archipelago - in the form of a lizard!
As expected, the game gives you complete freedom of movement wherever you want, squeezing into the tiniest crevices, climbing to the tops of long-forgotten temples, and into submerged dungeons, because maybe what you're looking for is right there. And what is that? Well, actually, it's not entirely explained at the beginning. Your goal is to revive the ancient lizard gods by solving various puzzles, connecting wires, ringing bells, hitting gongs, or directing beams of light by carefully placing mirrors.
The puzzles are not too difficult, and only by solving them will more parts of the dungeons and deeper parts of the island open up to you. Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where you have no idea what to do next, and to see what your current tasks are, you can check with X to enter the journal, and then use L and R to flip through the pages. There you will also find a list of all the types of bugs you have swallowed, as well as the relics you have found.
In broken vases, you will find shiny symbols that serve as currency to buy new colors and skins for your lizard.
Movement is simple; you move with the left stick and rotate the camera with the right. Holding ZR makes you run, B makes you jump, and A performs a sort of dash that allows you to attack enemies, catch bugs, and break vases. Everything else is done with Y.
The only way to travel from island to island is in a cute little boat that irresistibly reminded me of Wind Waker. There is no specific order you have to follow; you have all the time in the world to explore at your own pace, which the developers clearly aimed for - to create a game where you can go slowly, at your own tempo, that won't overwhelm you with tasks and markers on the map.
Honestly, the most stressful parts of the game for me were the "fights" against enemies in the form of scorpions and strange creatures that live in vases - you basically hit them two or three times with your head and that's it; they are practically harmless. You don't have a health bar, and a cute detail is that if you let them hit you multiple times, your tail will fall off, which will grow back after a while.
The game is beautifully drawn, the cell-shading is excellently done, but due to the game mechanics where you can literally go wherever you want, there are occasional unavoidable pop-ups, and sometimes you will fall through the texture and end up on the inner wall of an object where you shouldn't be, which requires a position restart. Aside from those occasional glitches, I have no other complaints. The world is beautiful, the day/night transitions are top-notch, and there are plenty of places to sit and enjoy the view. I hope for a patch with fixed textures.
The music is ambient and unobtrusive, and you won't even notice it while exploring, but at the same time, it gives a calming feeling.
Does this game bring something revolutionary? Not really. Is it worth getting? If you're looking for something to occasionally turn on just to climb walls and enjoy sunsets, definitely.
The Nintendo Switch copy of the game for the review was provided by the publisher Super Rare Games.
