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Every now and then, after playing a stressful and intense game, I love to break the pace by playing something quieter and more relaxing. Something gentle. A game that asks nothing more of you than to sit back, breathe, and simply enjoy the ride. And what better way to achieve that than with a game built entirely around cute animal babies?
I have played my fair share of games featuring animals as protagonists over the years, from foxes to wolves to cats, but I will confess that a baby boar had never once crossed my mind as a potential lead character. Adorable Adventures changed that, and I'm so grateful it did.
Story
You play as Boris, a baby boar living inside a national park who wakes up one morning to find his mother and siblings nowhere to be found. Alone and confused, Boris does the only thing that comes naturally to him: he uses his nose. From that moment, the adventure begins, and it is quite an adventure, I must add, tracing Boris's journey across the park as he follows scents, discovers new corners of his world, and, as a result, pieces his family back together.
The story is, as the title very honestly promises, adorable. There is a warmth and sincerity to it that is difficult not to appreciate, and the premise of a lost baby animal searching for his family carries an emotional weight that the game handles with care. However, it does have one significant issue, and for me personally, it is the most disappointing element of the entire game.
The story is completely narrated by the park supervisor, who provides a running commentary on everything Boris does and discovers. On the surface, this is a reasonable enough approach, and the narration is well-written and charmingly delivered. But in practice, it simplifies the storytelling in a way that robs the game of something far more powerful.
When you play as an animal in a game like this, the opportunity presents itself to make the player think and feel like that animal, to experience the world through its instincts and its senses rather than through a human voice explaining everything plainly. The best example I can offer is Spirit of the North 2, which I played and reviewed exactly a year ago and which I praised specifically for this reason. The mystery of that game, seen entirely through the eyes of a fox without a single word of narration, was quietly extraordinary. Adorable Adventures could have achieved something similar, and the fact that it does not is a sort of missed opportunity.
Gameplay
At its core, Adorable Adventures is a third-person exploration game built around Boris's nose and the smelling mechanic at the heart of it. The park is full of different scents, and your job is to spot them, isolating specific smells to follow and choosing which trails to pursue and which to leave behind for now. It sounds straightforward, and in many ways it is, but in practice it creates a satisfying rhythm that keeps you engaged all the time while playing.
Not all of the park will be accessible to you from the start. Certain areas are blocked off until you locate a specific number of Boris's siblings, at which point the family reunites and, working together, breaks down the barriers to new sections of the map. The game really excels here, giving each new sibling you find a sense of a real purpose beyond the emotional moment of the reunion itself.
But the real joy of Adorable Adventures, and the element I found myself returning to again and again, is the sheer variety of things to do within the park. Scattered throughout are numerous timed races, where you must sprint through checkpoints in a set time, and I found these so surprising in a way I absolutely did not expect from a game of this nature.
Boris's sprinting mechanic is extraordinary. He drifts while turning at full speed in a way that feels less like controlling a baby boar and more like piloting a very small, very determined sports bike, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. The moment I discovered these races, I lost a considerable amount of time to them that I had originally intended to spend on the main objective.
And that, really, is the best summary of what Adorable Adventures offers. I sat down on more than one occasion with a clear plan in mind and found myself doing something else entirely an hour later. The park is full of distractions, all of them enjoyable, and the game never once makes you feel pressured to stay on course. It is the kind of game that rewards curiosity and punishes nothing, and in the context of a relaxing experience, that is precisely the right approach.
Graphics, Performance, and Sounds
Adorable Adventures is not the most visually spectacular game you will ever play, but it is a quite beautiful one in its own modest and charming way. The national park setting is rendered with real care and affection, and the variety of environments packed into a small game like this is truly impressive. Even though the national park isn't that big at all, you will move through lush green woodland, rocky terrain, desert-like expanses, burnt forest, and more; each biome is distinct in both its visual appeal and its atmosphere.
The animal character models are crafted with equal attention, and Boris himself is the cutest and the most adorable little creature to spend time with.
On the PlayStation 5, where I played the game, there are no graphical options to choose between, and the game runs at a consistent 60 frames per second most of the time. I encountered a handful of minor frame rate drops here and there, but nothing significant enough to ruin the experience at all. So performance-wise, Adorable Adventure won't cause you any trouble, at least not on PlayStation 5. For the other platforms I cannot speak because I haven't tried them.
The sound design is equally well-made. The animal vocalisations are replicated with real attention to detail, and the soundtrack is soft, relaxing, and entirely in keeping with the mood of the game. The narration deserves a particular mention. The game is originally set in French with English subtitles, which is a charming touch, but given that my knowledge of French extends to precisely zero words, I switched to the English language option without hesitation. I am pleased to report that the English narrator is just as warm, just as accomplished, and just as well-suited to the material as the original French, and the experience loses nothing in the transition.
Conclusion
Adorable Adventures is a lovely game. It is not a perfect one, and the decision to frame Boris's story through a human narrator rather than trusting the player to experience the world through the animal's own perspective is a creative choice I find myself wishing had gone the other way. But beyond that, there is very little here to criticise and a great deal to enjoy. The exploration is satisfying, the smelling mechanic is clever, the racing sequences are far more thrilling than they have any right to be, and the world itself is a genuinely pleasant place to spend a few hours.
If you are looking for a game to unwind with, something that asks little of you beyond curiosity and a willingness to follow your nose, Adorable Adventures will serve you very well indeed. Boris is a small boar with a big heart, and his adventure is well worth taking.
The Good
Charming and emotionally warm story premise- Satisfying and inventive smelling mechanic
- Surprisingly exhilarating sprint and racing sequences
- Beautifully varied environments packed into a compact world
- Excellent sound design and narration in both French and English
- Stable 60 FPS performance on PS5
The Bad
Narrator-driven storytelling misses the opportunity for something far more immersive
