And as for the few moments when we ask her to hop, skip and jump across lily pads, it’s here where Beasts of Maravilla Island easily conjures up memories of gaming generations of the past. Movement physics are poor and there are plenty of times when she’ll happily walk through rocks, or get stuck at an invisible wall. The young girl you take control of is as bland as they get, moving around the Island in a stop-start manner. Things aren’t helped by hit-and-miss visuals and gameplay mechanics either. In fact, this comes across as something very much in the vein of a walking simulator, and as there is a little more to it than simple walking, talking and the use of a camera, there’s little to get involved in.

I guess the route that is taken here will ensure that Maravilla Island is accessible to all types of gamers – young and old – and so that has to be applauded, but for those who spend every waking hour with a controller in hand, Maravilla will probably disappoint. For this reason, beasts of Maravilla Island disappoints and it would have been great to have seen Whitethorn Digital and Banana Bird Studios find it within themselves to add in some kind of trickier gameplay element, or at least to open up the Maravilla world in a less structured fashion. At no time are these puzzles tricky to solve instead popping up as simple affairs as part of the linear journey.

Beasts of maravilla island