Assist Lila and her companion Flee in their exploration of the Hidden Forest of Solaria in order to rescue the Guardian Owls from the evil thieves. Discover hidden passages, defeat adversaries, and overcome obstacles in this enchanted 2D platformer.
The protagonists of platform games wander through forests and capture animals. If they are not cramming them into automata, they are holding them in cages. Therapists would have a field day investigating why these individuals need to confine animals with free will.
Lila and Flee have confronted one of these asses and their gang of Red Wing asses. This gang has wandered into the Hidden Forest of Solaria (not so hidden, huh?) and has captured and hung in gilded cages every avian they can capture. Why? Because they did not receive sufficient affection as children.
You and Flee, your closest friend bird, are responsible for retrieving the birds. This necessitates platforming with a side of bottom-bouncing. Over the course of six levels and three boss levels, you will return the birds to their nests and restore calm to Solaria.
Oh, we’re already doing this, right? You read that correctly: The length of Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest is six levels, or nine if you count the antagonists. Those levels are fairly lengthy, but they can be completed in five minutes if you know what you’re doing.
Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest is brief, so it’s best to get out of the way early. Typically, this is acceptable, particularly when games respect your time and deliver a condensed version of their game design. However, despite the fact that Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest is never repetitive, it ends before we are truly satisfied. A devil’s advocate would highlight the asking price of £4.19, but we abhor devil’s advocates. You feel deserving of more after reading Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest.
Each level had sufficient replayability and motivation to replay (thanks to achievements) for us to play them twice. This is made possible by five eggs hidden in secret passages throughout Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest. Lila knows her way around a secret, so every stray platform or miscolored pebble is likely concealing something. In fact, it’s one of Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest’s finest qualities: you can take your time and collect every egg and feather (the game’s currencies and rings) on each level for added enjoyment.
Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest falls into the category of ‘competent but unimaginative’ platformers. It occupies the intersection of the Venn diagram between Mario, Sonic, and Rayman. Lila can leap and bottom-bounce, while the following bird, Flee, can be used to hurl fire-flower-style projectiles at foes. They are guided like homing missiles, so the fireballs will follow adversaries regardless of their location. As a counterbalance to their potency, you have a limited supply of ammunition, which can be replenished at, uh, washing lines.
Lila uses Flee to take a trick from Sonic. If you are struck, Flee will disperse like the blue hedgehog’s rings, leaving you defenseless. Your best option is to lunge into her path and retrieve her, but this is easier said than done, as she flits in a figure-eight pattern, frequently into the path of enemies. If you fail to capture her, she will return to the washing lines, forcing you to backtrack or hope that one will appear shortly.
It resembles other games, but it is robust. There were no problems with controls, latency, or anything similar. The homing fireballs are somewhat flimsy, as you never feel in control of them, but that’s about the worst we can say about them. This game is lean, but the flesh that is present is tender.
The levels produce the occasional groan. With only six available, each of Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest urgently needed to make its case. But it can only offer two Flappy Bird segments and one Magic Carpet segment. The flappy bird segments, during which you tap A to avoid thorns, are so simple that you scarcely notice them. The magic carpet segment, which gives you more control over where you travel, is brief, but its poor feedback about approaching fireballs and bouncing gang members manages to grind our gears. As the only deviations from the platforming gameplay, they are a bit underdeveloped.
Throughout our playthroughs of Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest, we frequently discussed difficulty. We kept waiting for the difficulty to increase, so that it would truly test our abilities beyond simple jumps at a leisurely tempo. The final boss fight threatens to do just that, as it transforms the Dr. Robotnik foes into a timed obstacle course. However, even this is so lenient that we felt guilty and waited for the manager to catch up. We would have given a few of our feathers for an increase in difficulty.
It meant that we crossed the finish line with Vincent Vega-like confusion. We wondered where the remainder of the game was; whether there was another obstacle to overcome in order to move beyond the second gear. But we were done, achievement-hunting aside. To the game’s credit, we did so without hesitation, as the platforming is as tight as a drumskin.
Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest could have benefited from approximately double the amount of content and a different approach to difficulty, such as a challenging mode, a new game plus mode, or anything that would have made the player sweat. However, despite the complaints, it is an excellent platformer that would be a good purchase for younger players. At least an hour before they move on.
Lila’s Tale and the Hidden Forest: Assist Lila and her companion Flee in their exploration of the Hidden Forest of Solaria in order to rescue the Guardian Owls from the evil thieves. Discover hidden passages, defeat adversaries, and overcome obstacles in this enchanted 2D platformer. – kendajaya