Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom is another license game published by Little Orbit last month. WayForward – well-known with Shantae franchise – is the company responsible for developing the game series since. Expecting something awesome from them? Me, too, so let us keep moving.
Adventure Time game series is a multi-platform action game, also released for Nintendo 3DS. Despite being a series, each title does not connect to the previous/next installment, so it is really okay to play in any order. But you might need to watch or read some Adventure Time archives before playing the game to get along with the characters.
In The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom, Finn and Jake are sent by Princess Bubblegum to unexplored region in the Land of Ooo, hence the name Nameless Kingdom emerges in the first place. Without such specific identifier, Finn and Jake just forgets their mission until they arrive in the palace and get instructions: to save princesses.
Though I am not very familiar with Zelda series, you would know with only a blink that WayForward adopted Zelda-ish formula for The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom. You will get top-down view, hack n’ slash action heavily imbued with puzzle throughout the game. Toying with your equipment, Jake’s abilities, and other items will be helpful, especially when you have to break through Princesses’ chambers in their respective temples. It was quite an experience for a non-Zelda fans like me, so I enjoyed the process.
While the overworld and the caves are repetitive for sightseeing, the main dungeons are distinctive enough, since the puzzle element is heavily featured here. Even symbols you find in the Princesses’ temples make a difference, so please give them an attention. Unlocking doors and breaking walls made me scratch my head first, but once I got the how-to, it is a bingo.
Fighting bosses is another fun and challenging moment: the idea is that you have to use everything around you. This experience brought me back to Crash Bandicoot series, when you would never attack bosses deliberately, but instead, watch properly. It is not about beating difficulty, but to understand the pattern.
Besides lack of innovation and originality, the problem in The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom is that you are barely given hints where and how to go. Well, you can see which princess you have to save first in the map, but in order to do that, it is another matter. I spent hours wandering to understand how to enter the second temple – yes, unfortunately you will spend time in the overworld longer than in the dungeon.
The graphics and the soundtrack are good points to add here. Brushed in watercolor tone, you will happily explore the land of the Nameless Kingdom while listening to good music. BraveWave team composes the soundtrack, from the medieval chores, disco in the cave, to 8-bit music played in the shop – my favorite BGM in the game. Absurd, laughing stock stuffs you will find here are Adventure Time series’ properties, so to enjoy it fully, try digging into the cartoon and comic first. So, are you Adventure Time fans? Take your chance to grab The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom for $29.99.
