Oh, do I love games that tug at nostalgia. Unfortunately, some games just throw in ‘remember berries’ with no real purpose. ‘Tiny Garden’ by Ao Norte is a game I have yet to decide if the gimmick of a garden in a tiny pocket-sized town is exciting or just there to tug at the hearts of the 90s ‘Polly Pocket’ and ‘Might Max’ toy fans.

There is no true narrative established in this demo, you are thrown into a situation where you must manage a micro garden inside a ‘Polly Pocket’ inspired toy. Much like the famous but trivial game of ‘Farmville’ of peak 2010 Facebook days, you must grow plants from seeds in different terrains, collecting your yield to unlock more and more produce.

Collecting a certain amount of vegetables will unlock things like items to put in your quaint little house, change the colour of your outside shell, add stickers, or even change the background atmosphere colour. The demo eludes to a trickle-fed story through letters, but I have seen enough to be convinced it will play a strong factor since no voice acting or dialogue ties it together with the gameplay.

You start with the initial plot of land that you plant seeds in. Different seeds need different soils to grow. Some might need plain simple soil, while others might turn soil arid like cacti, some might need pools of water like water lilies, and some might even need mud or marshes.

To progress, you must have a certain amount of a particular resource. Vegetables are available in the demo so far, and these are grown by using the crank on the side of the capsule to cycle through the day.

One crank, one day cycle. It is a cool little mechanic, and the trick is to organise your plot so you have all the elements needed to grow certain crops. It is a nice little balancing and coordinating process. I look forward to how they extend this further through the game, as I predict it could get tedious quickly.

The visuals are very cartoony, whimsical, and cute. With bold lines and bright colours, it’s like the game slides between the pages of a colouring book. The little garden features, furniture, and tools are quaint and charming, perfectly matching the toy-like aesthetic.

The music is not very memorable, and I had to even dip back into the game to remind myself. It is nothing special, very generic, but sweet enough to fit the themes. The sound effects are very basic, with pops of vegetables coming out of the ground and scratching of soil as you plant seeds into cubes of dirt.

I can see Tiny Garden being a comfort game, but I am sceptical about whether they keep adding more things without it becoming a complete cycle of monotony. The inspiration is great on the surface level, but can Tiny Garden dig deep into those pockets it is trying to fill?

Written by: Stacey