2017 has gone by exceptionally fast but that doesn’t mean that companies stop dishing out quality titles for gamers around the world. The year itself has brought in an influx of new faces but also familiar ones, with the newer ones dishing out some really interesting games that even feel more satisfying than a AAA title. This brings us to Nicalis and Ludosity’s latest puzzle adventure and follow up to their successful title Ittle Dew, Ittle Dew 2+ for the Nintendo Switch. Anyone who fancies a challenge tied in with delighting humor, Ittle Dew 2+ is a game that will surely provide all the puzzles you need. This version comes with some extras that you’ll only find on the Switch, so anyone who played Ittle Dew 2 will certainly find some surprises in this version.

Ittle Dew 2+ doesn’t try to sell you on any sort of fancy mechanics or cutting edge visuals, its appeal stems from the constant puzzles you encounter and just how adept you are at solving them. Every puzzle comes in different shapes and sizes and many of them require a great deal of memorization in order to successfully solve them. While they’re not mind bogglingly hard, they still do put up a good fight, and will keep you stimulated for hours on end. The enemies are quirky in their own way and will respond to your actions very quickly, so thinking ahead of the enemy is a sure fire way in order to move ahead to collect your raft pieces. Do you need to play the original to keep up with the story? Not at all since this is a fresh adventure for the two daring adventurers, and so even if you’re new to the series you’ll find it very easy to jump right in. It’s a simple story that implements a lot of depth in regards to its gameplay and so, while the game seems catered to a younger audience it speaks to just about anyone who’s willing to overcome challenging obstacles.

Much of the gameplay in Ittle Dew 2+ revolves around the female protagonist Ittle and her flying dog Tippsie, as they once again find themselves on a mysterious island filled with puzzles and weird enemies. Their goal is to find 8 pieces of a raft so that they can leave the island, but they come to realize it’s not as easy as it seems. That’s where you come in to help Ittle and her sidekick figure out just how to leave the island in one piece, while trying to avoid causing any severe mishaps. Puzzles in the beginning seem a little easy at first which is expected since it’s a way to lure you in and keep you moving forward. However once you start to explore more of the island that’s when things start to get a bit more demanding, and you’ll find yourself spending a lot of time on one puzzle.

We should point out before continuing that there’s really no direction that you need to take pertaining to each dungeon, and that the game encourages you to pretty much attack any dungeon you desire. This is because throughout every dungeon there are certain areas that can’t be reached unless you acquire specific tools, and so for example we found ourselves running to the 4th dungeon just so that we could collect what we needed to solve the 3rd. That trend continues for much of the game and that’s what makes playing Ittle Dew 2+ so enticing. You’re not locked into some sort of predetermined path and so the journey you embark on is simply one that you choose, but be forewarned that some dungeons pose greater threats than others. Your trusted stick will be able to move certain blocks, open up secret dungeons among other things, but as you progress that weapon will start to lose its effect. So solving tricky puzzles and beating the dungeon bosses will reward you with new weapon upgrades that will open up new paths, and allow for you to take new shortcuts to finding even more secret items.

It’s truly a wonderful experience to play Ittle Dew 2+ because there’s no timer on the puzzles you encounter which means you could sit in the same room for as long as you need, until you solve it which takes off a lot of tension. In other puzzle adventure titles, you sometimes have to deal with time going against you which puts on a lot of mental pressure, but with Ittle Dew 2+ it’s smooth sailing so long as you concentrate and pay attention to patterns. One thing to point out that we really liked a lot was the music for each part of the map you explore. The choice in the instrumentation was very well done and while playing, it really made solving puzzles so calming and rejuvenating. That of course sounds really weird but to be honest, music plays such a major role in puzzle games and having the right sound can really help the player focus a lot more carefully with what’s in front of them. Because of this, we were able to solve puzzles without feeling too overwhelmed by the difficulty simply because the very chill ambience created this very tranquil aura. The boss battles to be quite honest weren’t as demanding as the puzzles within each dungeon which kind of made things feel anticlimactic, since you worked so hard to get to the boss thinking you’d be challenged and put to the test. We didn’t feel any of that and felt it drew a lot of that depth away from wandering around and collecting items. The reward would’ve felt a lot greater if the boss battles didn’t feel repetitive.

Ittle Dew 2+ plays similarly to its Ittle Dew 2 counterpart from last year but with a few extra little trinkets for Switch players to enjoy such as 5 new dungeons from the Dream World. Should that deter you from buying it if you’ve already played the original? Most surely not because the game, while it does feel similar still gives off a very fresh feeling the more you explore and unlock cool secrets, especially when you wander around the new dungeons and come across new and thrilling secrets. It reels you back in every time because there’s never a moment when things feel too off putting, it’s always willing to test your abilities to solve tricky puzzles while humoring you all at the same time. With the addition of the Dream World, it certainly adds more play time when compared to the original, which felt a little short when compared to other puzzle adventure titles, so with that in mind this is definitely a must have holiday treat.

In the end, Ittle Dew 2+ is a satisfying puzzle title that keeps everything simple in terms of its overall approach to design. It’s not trying to win the award winning prize in theatrics and over the top action, but it certainly won our hearts over with its very quirky appeal and willingness to provide enough of a challenge that’s truly entertaining. If you have a Nintendo Switch and are looking for something fresh to play, then don’t hesitate to give Ittle Dew 2+ a try because it’ll be worth your time. Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with all the latest gaming news and of course when we go live on Twitch. Follow on there as well at twitch.tv/honeysgaming and show us some love in the chat when you pop in! We’re always happy to meet and greet with new people so don’t hesitate to give us a shout.

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