One Eyed Kutkh Switch Review by Mark Burchell
Developer: Baba Yaga
Publisher: Sometimes You
Release Date: 9th March 2018
Price as of Article: $4.99 USD
From Baba Yaga games comes One Eyed Kutkh where you play as an alien traveller heading back to his home planet when in typical fashion his vehicle breaks down and crashes on a mysterious planet.
Then you must guide your alien creature through his journey to recover the missing pieces of his failed spacecraft through ninth heaven and trick the sun and the moon to repair your own ship.
The story itself is pretty basic yet somewhat charming. With all dialogue being communicated through interactive picture speech bubbles it’s certainly a unique approach. From start to finish this game plays out in more in the style of a children’s storybook with its interactive scenes and progressive story.
One Eyed Kutkh features a couple of ambient soundtracks that really immerse you into the slow-paced style of the game and it was one of the parts that I really enjoyed and whilst watching my 4-year-old son playing I could tell it was drawing him in too.
Another feature of this game was the interactive scenes such as the space like flowers and floating fish, if you tap them with your finger or cursor they would play a little melodic tune which was another great addition for children as my young boy really enjoyed discovering what else was floating around and how it would react to being touched.
<script async src=”//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js”></script><!– –><ins class=”adsbygoogle”<!– –> style=”display:block; text-align:center;”<!– –> data-ad-layout=”in-article”<!– –> data-ad-format=”fluid”<!– –> data-ad-client=”ca-pub-5661714653949151″<!– –> data-ad-slot=”5669732186″></ins><!– –><script><!– –> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<!– –></script>The Visuals in One Eyed Kutkh are unique using its abstract and fun style is like jumping straight into an Eric Carle book. In many space games, you expect a dark moody palette but you’re greeted with a surprisingly cheerful one. The life in the game is all created with bright colours that are a strong contrast with the background and jump out at you.
One of the downsides to the overall visuals I found was the lack of text, it kind of put me in two minds. I really enjoyed trying to work out what was actually being said by the creatures and then it also frustrated me when I was just doing tasks by trial and error and not knowing what was actually happening. The lack of text is also used on the main menu where you have to work out what you’re clicking, from muting the volume to starting the game is all done in images.
From my Sons point of view, he loved the whole visual style with his limited reading ability the text didn’t matter as he was fully immersed by the overall colours and sounds and in his words was “awesome”.
One Eyed Kutkh is a point and click adventure that does feature touch screen on the Switch. You’re initially greeted by a unique looking start menu which is surprisingly good for a game based on the Unity engine. Apart from the title, there is no text on the menu, even if you were to hover over the icons it doesn’t give you any indication of what they actually do but like with most of the game a bit of trial and error would get you through it, although I didn’t quite expect the “puzzles” to start on the main menu.
You’re initially thrown into this abstract world being greeted by your alien character flying his spaceship back home and in all honesty, I didn’t have a clue what was going on in the initial dialogue. All I could gather was that his spacecraft was in trouble and it gave me a few buttons to push. There was no real puzzle element to this just more trial and error and clicking or tapping the wrong button had no overall effect on the outcome.
The game continued down this linear path where you’re able to click around the screen on wildlife, flowers and other alien creatures which would give you a pleasant sound effect and just mainly came across as game fillers. You’ll very quickly understand the main bulk of the story is played out through the speech bubbles that appear as you progress and anything else will make very little difference.
I wouldn’t say One Eyed Kutkh really contains any puzzles but more minor obstacles that need to be overcome.
On the game’s website, it mentions One Eyed Kutkh is based on tales of the Far North, whilst playing myself there were no tales that really jumped out at me so have found myself curious as to what these could be. I can only assume it’s a story of the Sun and Moon and how they came to be which you’ll understand towards the end.
One Eyed Kutkh feels more like an interactive storybook, it’s charming and really enjoyed playing it with my young Son. Everything about the game is relaxing, my Son is a big fan of Eric Carle books such as The Hungry Caterpillar and The Angry Ladybird so to be able to interact with a story with a similar abstract pastel art style was a big plus from him and watching him get so much enjoyment from it brought a huge smile to my face. It’s a very family friendly game.
The game doesn’t support the pro controller but does support the separated joy cons. However, the best way to play this game is easily in handheld mode being able to use touch screen made a huge difference and made it child-friendly although make sure your Switch isn’t used as a frisbee by your little ones, believe me, I’ve had some close calls!
If you’re someone who loves a little linear story with no real puzzle tests or have young children then this could be a great little game for your collection. I finish this game in around 35 minutes and this was mainly due to the slower walking animations. As mentioned the puzzles or more of a minor inconvenience yet the sounds and art style are pretty unique. For $4.99 this would be a welcome addition to keep my Son happy for a little while but I wouldn’t purchase this solely for myself.
Pros
Great Art Style
Child Friendly
Fully Interactive Scenes
Cons
No Puzzles
Very Short
Slow Animations
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