Hey Turtle

I’ll have to make clear that this is an Android/iOS game first, something we normally don’t review at LifeisXbox but I was so attracted to this game for personal reasons that I really wanted to do it justice by spreading the word a little. Hey Turtle is an interactive short chat story that explains the relationship between Dana and you, I’m not spoiling more as it is worth checking it out yourself!

• Dialogue: Puns, jokes, serious talk, and personality! It is the foundation of this game so it needed to be good but they totally nailed it! It was charming to get to know your character and Dana, puzzling too at the same time as you really think about what to reply. (more at mixed feelings about that)
• An emotional story that you influence: Everyone has experienced something emotional in their lives, right? Some are luckier than others so the story will be different for everyone. However, I really can’t imagine that someone won’t be moved or touched by Hey Turtle’s story. The outcome is influenced by you, depending on your decision to deal with some stuff and that’s another great thing about this short game
• Clear visual style: Besides the chatbox, you don’t have a lot of memorable visuals besides some drawings and chapter screens. I really didn’t mind that and actually adored the simple and clear approach, letting the star of the game shine: the dialogue.
• Actually makes you think about real-life experiences: I really can’t write this with more meaning, but I wish more games could do what Hey Turtle did. You have quite a few emotional games but not nearly enough of them for how big of a deal this can be for people, in a good way I mean. This can help people, this can let people understand some situations, … this is by far the biggest achievement that developer Sleeper Cell did, making a difference!

• More dialogue options would have been nice: This isn’t really the fault from the devs or the game but being someone else (playable character) you sometimes don’t want to say what is available. Or in other words, not something you would write yourself. Could be that I was just “into the game” and wanted to guide it somewhere else but you would need some real advanced technology to be able to do dialogue like that, so I definitely don’t use this part for my general opinion about Hey Turtle.
• Sound: This had to be a discussion point in the dev team and I quite like how they did the sound part but at the same time I did miss some extra effort. I wouldn’t be able to give an example to approve upon this so I didn’t really take it into account for my final verdict.

• Rather short: Yeah it is hard to not mention this but the entire story is finished in half an hour. You do have some replay value but if you are like me I don’t replay a decision-based story game because I don’t want to ruin the initial experience. (Life is Strange for example too)

CONCLUSION

Score: 80% | I knew I was getting myself into something when I started playing Hey Turtle, while I haven’t really had the exact same experience it isn’t farfetched to say that I understand how it is to be shocked about how a normal-looking person can be so troubled in the head. As you know, LifeisXbox doesn’t normally do mobile game reviews but I really wanted to support this kind of interactive story. So if you can be sure to check out Hey Turtle, it is really cheap €0,89 (in Belgium) and does a really excellent job at placing you in an emotional situation. This made me feel something, unfortunately, something similar as I experienced in real life but at the same time it is heartwarming to play something like this. Turtle and Pikachu will never have the same meaning again …