Adorable Adventures Review

Sniff walks are a daily routine in my household, with the latest neighbourhood pee-gossip and whiff of blooming flowers wafting up my dog’s nose as we explore leisurely to start our day. With my human sense of smell being much weaker, scents don’t bombard me, but I can’t say I’m not curious what it’s like to truly take in the smells of nature in the way other animals can. I think playing as the darling baby boar, Boris, in Wild Sheep Studio’s third-person exploration game Adorable Adventures has given me an inkling of what that’s like.

When Boris points his sweet, little snout up high, a colourful route appears in the form of scent particles floating in the air, giving you a path to follow until you reach who or what is emitting the aroma. In the beginning, following your nose leads you to Boris’s mother, but she’s trapped behind a locked door, which could be broken with enough boars charging at it. That’s not a problem that can be immediately fixed, though, as the rest of Boris’s siblings have been scattered across the park following a forest fire. As such, he needs to use his trusty snout to track them down.

I thought this premise was quite heartwarming and, thankfully, not as sad as I had imagined. The whole adventure truly feels like a warm hug. There’s a lovely narrator describing your activities as Boris, and their tone is frequently cheery and delighted. It’s also not long until you start finding multiple siblings, so you’re never alone (plus, the additional little boars bring extra cuteness).

The game requires that you have a certain number of boars with you before you can break down barriers blocking you off from a new area. Though you can track your nearest sibling via their smell, your route will frequently get replaced with flowers, trash, animals, and even poop! All of these aromas are saved in your Scent-o-Meter, which is your smell library; there, you’ll see how many of each item you need to find (and smell) before you can ignore it and get back to tracking your fellow boars. You can also choose to go above and beyond by finding enough of an item to complete its entry, which usually rewards a fun outfit Boris can wear.

Using scent as a mechanic is quite fun, and especially fitting when playing as an adorable baby boar. I kind of felt like Boris was my spirit animal, since he’s so easily distracted; we could be following a trail for two seconds when a stronger scent gets in the way and veering off to follow it is the only choice.

However, while I enjoyed Adorable Adventures’ loop, I did feel that it got pretty repetitive. The game doesn’t necessarily overstay its welcome, as you can finish your playthrough in just a couple of hours, but even still, I was getting tired of it toward the end, wanting to see the scent mechanic evolve in some way. By the time the credits rolled, the game also seemed unfinished, almost like I played a demo rather than a full release.

That said, there are some side tasks you can take on, like races where you can keep trying to beat your record time or collecting photos at locations in the park. These did feel like filler, though, and I would’ve liked to see more interesting side content. They’re not that fun to veer off and do, unfortunately. In theory, I think I’d like the races more if they improved how Boris handles when you’re sprinting/charging, as he’s a bit unwieldy to control even when using a controller like the game recommends. For the photos, it felt like you had to be very precise about the camera placement, which tried my patience.

I remember being excited about finding more of Boris’s family because the game said they all have different personalities, but in practice, they’re little more than keys that get to walk around with you. Much of their uniqueness lies in what you need to do to get them, whether it’s bringing them mushrooms or helping them get unstuck from a jar, but after that, they just follow you around. It would’ve been nice to see them embrace their individuality and blossom as companions, such as having additional storylines or some sort of function/mechanic once they join Boris’s journey, but much like the scent mechanic, these extra boars stay pretty one-note.

I would’ve enjoyed spending more time in Adorable Adventures, if there had been more content to engage with. The world is beautiful with lovely sound design, evoking cosy, nature vibes that I quite like. It’s been a delight to have Boris run, jump, and dig across those landscapes. I think the scale of the environments was also well done, with each area feeling appropriately sized. It ran like a gem, too, with no stutters, bug encounters, or crashes. There is an “unstuck” button, but thankfully, I never needed to use it. That said, you just don’t get to spend enough time in that world.

With Adorable Adventures being very short, calm, and light on gameplay, it would be decent for anyone desiring a quick, wholesome play, if they don’t mind the entry fee. Being calm and cute doesn’t mean this title is for everyone, though. I typically enjoy cosy, bite-sized games, but even I found that Adorable Adventure’s short runtime was a big downside. Lasting only two to three hours, the £16.99 price tag is a bit too steep, especially considering the fact that, even with a short story, I was already getting fatigued from the gameplay loop. Additionally, as mentioned before, the brevity made it feel more like a demo (albeit a polished demo).

While the experience is “adorable” as the title implies, appropriate for a younger audience or cosy gamers, just know that if you want more from it, you’ll likely have to focus on achievement hunting or intentionally slow down your main story progress. For me, I didn’t find the side content worth going back to, such as the photo hunting, so I don’t think I’ll stretch out my time with the game by going back and finishing those. Again, I’d highly recommend getting Adorable Adventures on sale if you’re going to pick it up, as the price tag is quite high for two to three hours of gameplay.