Lil Gator Game: Gator of the Year Edition review

I first played Lil Gator Game when I was in a gaming slump a couple of years ago. It ended up curing me as I instantly fell in love with its Zelda-like exploration and simple yet calming adventure. Sometimes you need to take a break from all the heavy games and play something a bit lighter, and if that’s what you’re looking for, then this game is the perfect remedy. Lil Gator Game released back in 2022, but has now received a DLC which has a whole new campaign and world to explore, so I’m going to combine them both in a neat little package just like the new physical edition they can both be bought in, Gator of the Year Edition.

Base game 

Lil Gator Game captures the feeling of a story book adventure you'd read as a kid. You play as a young gator who’s trying to persuade her big sister, who has come home from college, to play games with them. Like the good old days, other kids are flooding the outdoors to play make-believe games and conjure up fantasies that last them hours. That may seem like a bit of a novelty these days in a digital age, which makes the game feel incredibly nostalgic, yet bittersweet. To distract her from her endless college work, you make it your task to flaunt how much fun you’re having playing the hero in an adventure your friends have come up with. Throughout the game, you’ll rope in friends and strangers alike to create a sprawling fantasy world that your sister cannot resist.

The game playfully takes inspiration from a memory that most of us grew up with, playing a game with a friend or family member. One of my fondest memories growing up was spending hours trying to beat the notoriously difficult) Donkey Kong Country Wii game with my dad, or chasing my friends around in a hide and seek game using axes in Animal Crossing Wild World. In this game’s take, they use The Legend of Zelda as that core memory as your sister conjures up quests to make you the Hero of Time. The game even endearingly states that you’re already halfway there by being green. Even if you didn’t play The Legend of Zelda growing up, I think the game still resonates widely with an audience that grew up with all kinds of art, like video games, film or literature. Childhood adventure and imagination is a universal experience. With that in mind, I’ll be referencing how this game refers to its inspiration a few times.

You begin your adventure on a small island, and your aim is to persuade your friends to set up three important quests, as every hero needs a sword, shield, and cool hat (of course). After this first taste of adventure, getting to know the game’s personality and gameplay, the adventure takes on a grander form as you migrate to the large island in the distance, where the world is literally a playground. Lil Gator Game is mostly about recruiting other kids to come play at your fort that is central to the island–like a hub. The game begins quite quaint with your small troupe, but it becomes an adventure worthy of a hero when you band together with other kids to construct a large base in the island’s playground.The structure of the game feels reminiscent of Zelda's, giving it a homely feeling.

You recruit others by completing their quests, which are really silly 99% of the time. They don’t take very long to complete but are packed with personality. Main quests are similar as you try to solve the problems of your best friend and their group of friends before they all agree to help you. One of my favourites was when Avery’s group all wanted to enact their own fantasies–a wild western, an evil vampire ruler, and a space shoot-'em-up. So you go around and help them out. But they’re kids, so nothing is ever that serious as the evil vampire wants ice cream, and the cowboy is plagued by their siblings racing around causing mischief. Meeting all these quirky characters was my favourite part of the game, and there’s plenty of them to keep you busy. Despite all of this silliness however, Lil Gator Game has many tender moments in its main story and side quests about how growing up means gaining responsibility, but keeping that child-like part of you is just as important.

The world of Lil Gator Game was an absolute delight to explore with its different sections and tactical choice to not provide the player with a map. I’ve seen a lot of people complain that it makes the game too confusing, but I think it serves the game really well, echoing early Zelda games. Wandering aimlessly and trying to make sense of your surroundings is exactly how being a kid feels like. So many games give you sprawling maps with trackers that make exploring kind of mindless, but this type of adventure is all about discovery. I also never felt lost in a frustrating way, as the world is littered with cardboard stands that have been painted to look like your typical video game enemies. They fill every corner of the map and can be cut up to get recycled material. They acted as a guide to areas I hadn’t explored yet, therefore leading me to missing friends to unlock. If the lack of a map is of particular annoyance to you, then don't worry; you eventually get access to a helpful feature that will lead you to things you haven’t found yet. This comes after beating the game, which is a swift process if you are just doing the main quests. All of this combined made for a fun and rewarding quest to 100% completion, which is considered the game’s true ending. To achieve this, you must destroy every cardboard cut-out and recruit every friend. I can see why cutting up cardboard would seem a tad repetitive, but it also acts as a currency to use to unlock new costumes and skins for your weapons.

Lil Gator Game is really short and for the discount you can get it at now, it’s worth the price if you’re looking for a cozy time. To my absolute surprise, now 4 years later we have gotten a DLC that doubles the length of your playtime, with everything I loved about the game back with just as much charm and personality.

In the Dark DLC

The only thing that I was longing for when I finished Lil Gator Game was… just more of what I had been given. On my first play through, it took me just under 5 hours to 100% and platinum the game, with a re-run where I skipped all the dialogue and achievements taking me a whooping 2-3 hours. Short game experiences are not necessarily a bad thing, but when I saw In the Dark get announced, I was excited to return. 

In the Dark is a new campaign that boasts as much content as its base game, so it feels more like a sequel than something you just add on. This time around, you’ll take to the underground where you will explore mossy caverns, luminescent streams, and abandoned machinery. The map is just as big this time, albeit one that I found a tad more confusing to explore. The nature of the twisting caverns, which had about 5 different branching paths everywhere you went, made my head spin on a few occasions. You’re still guided by the plentiful number of cardboard enemies, but if you need to retrace your steps, then a lack of map becomes a bit of a problem. It's still fun to explore, don’t get me wrong, but if you thought the base game’s lack of direction was annoying, then it's not getting any better. However, the sections of the environment are still a wonder to explore and just as beautiful–if not even more so–as the main game’s islands. 

The story is just as charming as the first, as this time you encounter a much younger and sassier kid who claims to be the Darklord. They threaten to blow up your fort with fireworks, and thus begins your quest to stop them. However, this game of make-believe seems to have more of a sour twist as the Darklord tends to boss people around and their minions are not too pleased. However, the little evil doer suffers the consequences of their behaviour, making us privy to some heartfelt messaging about feeling like an outsider because you think and present yourself in a different way to others. Not everyone fits the bill of the righteous hero

You might be thinking, well, this is just a rehash of everything we have already played, and to that I say, mostly yes, but in a good way. Lil Gator Game got its formula right straight away and never overcomplicated things to make their game drag. It's concise but still has the freedom for you to explore at your own pace. We did get a new mechanic in the DLC's gameplay, however, which is charm weapons. These are weapons you can find or create that each have their own unique skill, from a double jump to a spin attack. I found they served a better purpose to propel me across the map as the underground consisted of more mountainous and open terrain in some areas. It beat having to scale every cliff over and over again. Instead, your charm weapon can be used as a different and more fun way of navigation. For each charm weapon you find, you’ll unlock a new gauge that lets you use your ability for longer, so by the time I got to the end game, I was basically flying across the map. They will definitely be a fun addition if you wanted to try new game plus for the base game campaign. 

Other things of note that I loved in the DLC included a main quest that was a movie set and a nerdy axolotl who tasks you to find cryptids scattered across the map. You'll then get some fun facts and history about them from your amphibian buddy. Lil Gator Game is full of these fun moments and once you combine them all together, then this game is a blast to play through.