Ittle Dew review

Having a hard time balancing its escape raft

Review written by
Melissa Vach

August 27th, 2014

Ittle Dew immediately sets itself up as a Zelda clone before establishing its own voice through a running commentary of the beloved series, but the game does have a bit of a strange balance as a result. Ittle Dew is designed for speed-runners, yet the give-and-take from gameplay difficulty and its overall length make it difficult to rate whether the game's actually worth recommending even to speed-runners.

For speed-runners, all sorts of 'professional short-cuts' are laid out so you can learn the lay of the land and rush your way to victory. For adventure game enthusiasts, you have no chance of missing chests, getting lost in a dungeon, or having a hard time figuring out where you're supposed to be going or what you're supposed to be doing.

Everything works in the favor of the speed-runner, but when the game is so easy and straightforward to begin with, where's the motivation to learn its tricks inside and out? How much more can be learned after you've played it once? Not too much, really, but stepping back and looking at Ittle Dew as another adventure game like Zelda, it holds up decently - just not enough to deserve an equal return investment of time for your money.

As Ittle Dew, a young girl exploring an island after getting stranded on it with her flying fox named Tippsie, you're sent to the island's castle to retrieve an artifact. Once you get it, you'll be able to trade it to the item shop seller Itan for a new raft. But, of course, in order to get that artifact you'll need to ransack the castle of all its gold in order to buy new weapons from Itan.

As mentioned earlier, everything's all set up in a very Zelda-like manner, with a heart meter, special weapons for dungeon puzzle solving, and an overworld that looks like it could have come from any Game Boy Advance Zelda title. Ittle Dew isn't just a Zelda-clone, though, as part of its charm works through the aforementioned running commentary of that series; such as the first time Ittle Dew picks up a heart, which falls to the ground as a slab of meat, and eats it like an apple. It sounds gross, yeah, but it's presented in the game as a humorous questioning of some things gamers just take for granted. Like, what does Link even do with the hearts he finds - absorb their symbolic energy? It's hard to imagine Link chomping down hearts like fruit.

Ittle Dew forms itself around this type of fun poking, with a general irreverence that almost makes it come off like Bill Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic series - and that's never a bad association to have.

But, where the fun and games detracts from the overall experience is when, as in-game signs will point out, dungeons are designed contrarily to Zelda so that you don't have to miss any chests or even get lost in them. It's any Zelda fan's greatest irritation at not being able to figure things out in a dungeon, but the puzzles in Ittle Dew are so simplistic and dungeons designed too straightforward that you're not even meant to struggle. Sure, the game's designed so you can speed-run your way through, but at times it begins to feel like the game's humor actually compromises any challenge it could have offered.

You'll be in and out of dungeons in no time, solving one block-moving puzzle after another, and you'll rarely feel like you were creative or smart in doing so. A couple moments shine that involve a bomb and the ice wand, but in general you're not going to wow yourself with your creative puzzle-solving skills. With everything else that's been modeled after Zelda, that was one of the hallmarks that should have transferred.

A different sort of problem that plagues the game is its imprecise controls. They're fairly loose, so before you start moving those blocks make sure Ittle Dew has actually gripped the one you want her to move; otherwise, she just keeps on sliding until she moves the wrong one, forcing you to opt for reseting the room and having another go. It also gets a bit aggravating when fighting enemies, who aren't a challenge in and of themselves, even the bosses, because Ittle Dew only faces in the four cardinal directions. She can walk diagonally, but she can't actually swing a weapon or turn herself to face diagonally.

Despite these flaws, Ittle Dew at least entertains. Its attitude fits perfectly with its cartoon-style art direction and light-hearted music. Dialogue between characters can be amusing, and the ghosts you'll find in later levels are equal amounts cute and creepy. And, even with loose controls, Ittle Dew isn't terrible to play.

But, it's a game that finishes far too quickly and is too easy. It didn't leave me feeling very fulfilled after having played it, though I do find myself liking it enough to have wanted more. But, potential doesn't get games very far if they don't actually fulfill it.

If you're a speed-runner you may very well enjoy this game. I finished it in about 2.75 hours without trying to even rush. Now, having said that, if you're someone looking for a decent adventure game to sink at least a week of on-and-off play into, Ittle Dew will leave you disappointed. When balancing its lifespan and gameplay, the game falls short.

As such it's hard to recommend investing $10 on Ittle Dew. It's also not so bad that it warrants being avoided completely. Just take note that the monetary investment you put into Ittle Dew won't reflect your time investment or, potentially, sense of fulfillment, not unless you keep replaying the game to be the Ittle Dew speed-running champ.