Lost in Play Nintendo Switch Indie Video Game Review

Growing up I never played a lot of point and click adventure games. I generally found them to be kind of boring. Lately I have really started to appreciate the genre though. Being a huge fan of puzzle games was probably a pretty big contributing factor. Because of this, I am intrigued when I see a new interesting game from the genre. When I first saw Lost in Play I was really interested in checking it out as it looked like an interactive animated movie. Lost in Play takes you to a charming fantastical world filled with good puzzles which might be a little too easy for some players.

In Lost in Play you play as a brother and sister. While playing outside of their home ,they are transported to a magical world filled with fantastical characters and creatures. The gate to return home is only open for a short period of time though. The two siblings must work together in order to make their way back home before the gate closes for good.

For the most part Lost in Play plays a lot like your typical point and click adventure puzzle game (even though you don’t use a cursor). Basically you interact with different things/characters in the world. This will give you items which you can then use with other objects/characters. This is used as the basis for solving puzzles in order to open up your path forward.  Occasionally there are also some small little mini games that you need to complete.

For the most part I would say that Lost in Play is basically what I expected it to be. The game for the most part sticks to what you would expect from a point and click adventure puzzle game. Therefore your feelings towards the game are likely going to depend pretty heavily on your feelings towards the genre in general. If you don’t typically care for the genre, I see no reason why you would like Lost in Play. Those who enjoy the genre though should read on as I think Lost in Play is a good game that you should enjoy.

The first thing that I noticed when I first saw Lost in Play was its overall style. It immediately reminded me of a cartoon television show. In particular it gave me a lot of Gravity Falls vibes. After playing the game, my initial impression was on track. It is obvious from the first minutes that the game’s style and story were inspired by television shows such as Gravity Falls.

This is probably the game’s greatest asset. The game’s story is pretty straightforward. It basically follows the brother and sister as they explore a fantastical world in their journey to get back home. The story is simple, but it is really cute/charming. There are some genuinely funny moments that people of any age can enjoy. The real standout is the visuals and the animation. While playing the game it honestly feels like playing an interactive animated movie/cartoon. If the visual style is one of the things that intrigued you about Lost in Play, you are going to be happy with this aspect of the game.

While the visuals might be the standout, Lost in Play backs it up with the gameplay. It doesn’t really revolutionize the genre in any significant way. I don’t know if it really needed to though. It takes what is enjoyable about the point and click adventure puzzle genre, and focuses on those elements. The gameplay is really straightforward, and it works really well.

The standout on the gameplay front is the puzzle design. I generally thought the puzzles were really well designed. The game avoids the obtuse puzzle design of a lot of games from the genre. It never leaves you with the feeling of having no idea of how to proceed. The puzzle design is clever and well designed. The solutions are logical in a fantasy/cartoon way. This prevents you from having to just try everything until you come to the answer.

I think Lost in Play does a fantastic job at what it is trying to accomplish. It does a good job of being a game that can be enjoyed by both children and adults. The puzzles have enough challenge to keep adults interested, and yet are straightforward enough that I think children could play the game. This is further accentuated by the charming characters and atmosphere.

I really enjoyed Lost in Play. I mostly only had two issues with the game.

The first is the game’s difficulty. I do play a lot of puzzle games and have played quite a few other point and click adventure games. That might have had an impact on my thoughts on the difficulty. I personally found the game to be pretty easy. I think this is due to a couple things.

First when you interact with pretty much everything in the game, it will show you a little image of what you need to acquire to further interact with it. This eliminates some of the puzzle solving from the game. It is usually obvious what you need to accomplish in each scenario. Even when the game doesn’t specifically show you what you need, it is pretty easy to figure it out.

The other reason that Lost in Play is on the easier side is that the puzzles themselves are rather straightforward. As I mentioned earlier, the puzzle design is really good. Much of the time it is pretty obvious what you need to do though. This isn’t helped by the fact that in quite a few sections of the game there are only a couple different screens to search meaning your options are on the limited side. Most of the puzzles I solved really quickly. I think there was only one puzzle towards the end of the game that I had to kind of brute force in order to figure out the solution. If you ever do need help, the game has a useful hint system that will point you in the right direction.

The game being on the easy side leads to the other issue I had with Lost in Play. Lost in Play is on the shorter side. The game consists of 15 chapters. The length of chapters can vary quite a bit. Some are quite short, and others are pretty long. Obviously the overall length will depend on how fast you solve the puzzles. If I made a guess, I would say that it probably took me around four hours or so to beat the game. It might have been a little more, or a little less. I would guess most players could beat the game within 4-6 hours. Mostly I just wish the game was longer because I was really enjoying it and was wishing that it would be longer.

I ultimately really enjoyed my time playing Lost in Play. In many ways it felt like an interactive version of a cartoon show/movie. The world it creates is charming and the visuals/animation are fantastic. The gameplay is similar to your typical point and click adventure puzzle game. The puzzle design is really good. The only real issue with the game is that it is on the easier side. This makes the game kind of short as well.

Your feelings towards Lost in Play likely will come down to your thoughts on the premise and the point and click adventure puzzle game genre. If the premise or genre don’t really interest you, I don’t think Lost in Play will be for you. Those who are intrigued by the game will likely really enjoy their time playing Lost in Play and should really consider picking it up.