The game eschews the need to add contrived challenge such as platforming segments or puzzles that impede the player’s progress.
Every now and then you can tap into the aforementioned minigames, but these do not have scoring systems or anything of the like, and instead act as small empathy moments to get the player into the headspace of the boy. The story is told as a two-dimensional walking simulator, and the plot unfolds as you walk to the right. It has to be mentioned that as an adaptation of a novel, Blowfish Studio’s Storm Boy is not a traditional game, as much as it is a space to play in.
This is represented through various minigames which can be played with either touch or button controls – everything from playing catch, drawing lines in the sand, or flying around the landscape. Together, they play along the beach as a normal boy would play with a puppy. The story of Storm Boy concerns the friendship between the protagonist and a pelican which he raises, affectionately naming Mr. The animations are similarly detailed, and this game can easily hold the title of best animated pelican in the whole industry. The rolling sand dunes and white crested waves are animated with care, and are a joy to run through. The game adaptation absolutely nails the graphical style, creating a world which is both whimsical and yet reflective of the Australian landscape that is so crucial to the success of the book. I love that Storm Boy is part of an unspoken collective Australian consciousness, and so while people my age might not be the target audience for Sydney based Blowfish Studio’s adaptation on the Nintendo Switch, I’m still hugely excited that there’s now another way that people around the world can enjoy this classic novella. Two months ago, when a beloved used bookstore in Sydney closed, I picked up a water-damaged copy, and a bunch of my friends remembered reading the book too, even though none of us could recall any plot details. I have fond memories of this story as one of the first books I’d finished in English, and I think that if I dug around, I could find the poster I made on pelicans in third grade. It’s a touching story of a boy living with his reclusive father on the wild South Australian coastline, and his interactions with the natural environment.
Colin Thiele’s Storm Boy is a book taught in primary schools across Australia.
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