I grew up playing a lot of Pokemon games. As such, the Monster-Catching genre has always appealed to me. In that same vein, I spent a lot of time in my youth watching my mom play farming sims like Harvest Moon. When I saw Ooblets being developed, I knew it was something special, attempting to merge the two ideas into one cohesive package. What the developers have created is so much more than the inspiration they drew from.

Ooblets puts you in the role of Badgetown’s newest resident on the Island of Oob. Badgetown is at risk of being disincorporated as an official city by the Ooblet High Council. The town is in disarray, and the new mayor offers you a place to stay in Badgetown in exchange for your help. It turns out your new residence is an abandoned farm, which you’ll need in order to make money and grow both ooblets and crops in order to save the town.

Ooblets can be obtained by dance-battling other ooblet packs. Dance battles utilize a card-based system, similar to games like Slay The Spire. If you beat an ooblet pack, you’ll get a seed. Growing the seed allows you to gain that ooblet to use yourself. Additionally, you’ll need to forage around town for ingredients to attract ooblets, fulfill requests, and upgrade things.

By solving problems in the village, you’ll gain Wishies, which can be used to upgrade various things in town or on your farm. It also lets you unlock things such as cooking recipes (used to restore energy), as well as new crafting items or various other perks. By catching ooblets, earning gummies (money), and solving the town’s problems, you’ll slowly unravel the problems plaguing Badgetown and the island of Oob.

I’m not going to spoil anything else, because there are a lot of other mechanics that are involved here. However, I can tell you that Ooblets blends the things I love about games like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon, with games like Pokemon or other such experiences. On top of that, it is a very casual experience, with colorful characters and cute creatures to befriend.

Did I mention your ooblets can help you on the farm? Every piece of Ooblets’ design is woven together to masterful effect. From the cute characters and funny dialogue, all the way to the satisfying progression systems, everything works together in a satisfying way. Even the music is good and never gets irritating. I don’t even bother putting other music on while I play. Instead, I just bop along with my little ooblet friends while they battle it out in dance.

The entire game is colorful, cute, and is a perfect thing to play on the go or when you just wanna chill. There are a ton of progression systems too, all of which work together so you always feel like you’re accomplishing something one way or another. I normally would complain about the in-game day/night system, but there aren’t really any consequences for not getting things done if you get distracted or stay out too late.

Between the large number of customization options available and the amount of content in the game, I’d recommend Ooblets to anyone. I’d actually argue that it is one of my favorite games I’ve played all year. There’s just something about watching little colorful critters dance and shake their butts that puts a smile on my face.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Ooblets was provided by Glumberland for this review.

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Ooblets

$29.99

10

Score

10.0/10

Pros

• Fun Gameplay
• Adorable Creatures and Visuals
• Great Music
• Lots of Things to Do
• Simple Controls