What sort of abomination would you get if you’d cross Adventure Times with Super Mario? If your first thought was “Something fun filled with amazing level design and wacky enemies”? Then you’re wrong! You’d get Wooble Tree Adventures. Why? Because why not! Wooble tree puts you in charge of a stump… Yes, a stump. Birthed by the (for what I can only assume) world tree with a single quest bestowed onto you. Gather fairy tears to bring water back to the world. With just a backpack and a leaf, you run around gathering berry apples and tears. Sigh… So get ready guys, grab your wood and polish your apples, because we’re going to explore… Wooble Tree Adventures Deluxe… Yup…
- Kid Friendly: This game would suit perfectly for children of all ages. Its calm demeanor and “no violence or gore” attitude lends the game the perfect environment for letting your tiniest little treasures enjoy the game without worrying if there’s going to death, blood or cursing somewhere along the line. The graphics and enemies also give this game that extra bit of cuteness factor with them being drawn exactly like something you’d find in, for example, Adventure Times. Though the level design might give them a bit of a hard time as the camera (more on this later) doesn’t work as intended, resulting in unnecessary deaths more often than not.
- Very short: Length isn’t important, you’d think. But a game that can be finished in under one hour? That’s just way too short! If you want to unlock everything you’re going to be losing around 2 hours. And that’s mostly because of the movement speed of your stump together with the god awful camera, rather than anything else. Pity…
- Boring Audio: You all know that audio is a make or break factor for me in games. That’s because audio, either soundtrack or sound effects, carry a game. Sadly enough it doesn’t carry Woodle Tree. The soundtrack is slow and isn’t really doing its job into making the world that you waddle around in, lively. The sound effects are just basic things. Like acknowledgment sounds for when you’re picking up berries, jumping or shooting your leaf. And that’s about it. So don’t play this when you’re sleepy, otherwise, you will be falling asleep!
- No reason for the “weapon” upgrades: So the game offers you weapon upgrades for your leaf. You start off with a green leaf. This does nothing other than smacking your enemies. Then you get your first upgrade after collecting enough berries, which makes it shoot whirlwinds. The more upgrades, the different colors. But why? What do they do? There’s no reason for these upgrades. They don’t really improve your damage as one hit kills all. Even without the upgrade. Just a different color… yay?
- Camera: I totally hated playing this game due to 2 reasons, first one being the camera. And secondly, the movement. So, this camera system is broken as hell. You cannot turn the camera around. The game decides this for you. I wouldn’t have minded this if it wasn’t for it not detecting going inside or outside of tiny buildings and resetting its position afterward. You can zoom in or out, but this doesn’t facilitate you moving and maneuvering over obstacles. More often than not I would just reset the stage if it got me stuck in an uncomfortable position. Or it wouldn’t turn where it previously turned. Making it impossible to continue without resetting.
- Slow movement: Djeez, give me a run button, please! Your character moves incredibly slow… So slow in fact, that I started just jumping around. Why? Jumping crosses more distance and is actually faster than just walking around. The only problem here is that even with the jumping making it easier and faster to move around, the moment that you hit the water you’ll be slowed down to an absolute crawl. Why? Why was this needed? You are already one of the slowest creatures in this game, so why slow it down even more!
Score: 44%
You faintly see the rough outline of a developer that wants to create child-friendly games. And to a great extent, it worked out, if that was his aim. But the unforgivable camera system really doesn’t do Wooble Tree any justice, it breaks down the very notion of it being a decent game. Though if you can look past these flaws it still is an okay game for little children.
Developer: Fabio Ferrera Publisher: Chubby Pixel
Played on: Xbox One X Also available on: Switch and PC
Alexis spent 1.5 hours wobbling his wood around.
Achievement difficulty for 1000 Gamerscore: At max, it’ll take you 2 hours to get every achievement
Perfect for: Little kids.
Xbox Game Store link: Click here