You can travel wherever you want, but you’re limited by the Spriteling types you have, as you’ll soon be blocked by pollution, crystals and brambles. The Wild at Heart is, in essence, Pikmin recast as a Metroidvania.

Your entourage grows from ten all the way to seventy-odd. Treasures can be grabbed from far away, items can be carried and pressure plates can be pressed if you have enough Spritelings. Fruits are smashed, revealing seeds that can be grown into more Spritelings (the seeds depend on which Spriteling type you used to pop them). Enemies like giant slimes and toads can be gang-tackled, popping to give you energy. Starting with the bog-standard flavour, you can have an entourage of ten, and you get to chuck them at things. Luckily, the real stars are the Spritelings. The Wild at Heart is richly imagined, so it’s a shame that the story and dialogue are so half-baked. The Greenshield Order versus The Never is plain good against bad, and, while the characters you meet are fantastically designed cast-offs from a Del Toro film, they are mostly vendors or objectives to complete.

The father subplot re-emerges in some nightmare sequences and the ending, but ultimately it dallies with serious themes but wimps out. The ‘80s setting is ditched the moment you step out of the basement. It sounds like The Wild at Heart is steeped in story, but it’s actually one of its weakest points. The Order’s ruler, a green witch, has recently deceased, but her powers have spread about the forest, and gathered around you. It turns out that they are the ‘Greenshield Order’, knights of the forest that protect it from an insidious monster called Big Pockets and their armies of The Never. Before you’re eaten, a Gandalf-alike called Grey Coat and a man wearing a teapot for a head called Scrap Heap save you, and whisk you to The Grove, a safe haven in the middle of the forest.

Second thoughts cross your mind, night falls and creepy creatures approach. Want to win a 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscription? Enter now!Įxcept you can’t find her, and the forest starts to close in.

The wild at heart game review