New games: The Wild at Heart reimagines Pikmin in beautiful storybook art

It’s kind of surprising we don’t see more Pikmin-style games on PC. The beloved Nintendo franchise has inspired a handful of games (such as last year’s Masters of Anima), the format is still vanishingly rare on PC. The Wild at Heart is a game that openly embraces its Pikmin roots, and it marries the core gameplay idea of leading a troupe of cheerful little plant people with gorgeous artwork that could have come out of a storybook from my childhood. You play as 12-year-old Wake, a boy who sews patches on his denim jacket and likes spending time alone. Trouble at home has Wake spending more and more time outdoors, exploring the forests and streams of his hometown of Willowvale. Along with his little neighbor Kirby, Wake is led into the forest by a strange creature one night, which is where the adventure begins. It’s a combination of the picture books and movies I loved as a kid - there’s some Neverending Story in there, and the style reminds me of something I can’t quite put my finger on, somewhere between Maurice Sendak, Tove Jansson, and Richard Scarry.

from PCGamesN http://bit.ly/2RlnX3p