A magical adventure is unfolding in Beasts of Maravilla Island, an exploration puzzle game on the Nintendo Switch developed by Banana Bird Studios and published by Whitethorn Digital. Players will explore Maravilla Island as Marina Montez, a young wildlife photographer attempting to unravel the mysteries stored inside her grandfather's journal. Beasts of Maravilla Island is a relaxing and colorful adventure, and will likely appeal to fans of games like New Pokémon Snap and Alba: A Wildlife Adventure. However, while Maravilla Island's design is breathtaking, there are a few bugs that can create issues during play.

The journey begins with Marina sailing to the island. She isn't sure she believes her Grandfather's claims about the island's magical inhabitants and is intent on discovering the truth. Right from the start in Beasts of Maravilla Island, players get a glimpse of an ethereal stag lurking just within the trees. It quickly vanishes, leaving Marina to start her journey through the jungle with her Grandfather's journal as her guide. As players make their way through the biomes of Maravilla Island, they will learn that Marina's Grandfather hoped to ensure the preservation of the island by sharing the beauty of it through photography with the world.

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Taking photos and interacting with the environments in Beasts of Maravilla Island is intuitive and simple. Players enter the Camera Mode using their "LZ" bumper and can zoom in or out using the directional buttons. Hitting "A" will snap a picture of the photo's subject. Much like Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, players will need to fill their Photo Album with photographs they have taken, and complete objectives in each area. These objectives can be checked by opening either the Journal or the Photo Album at any time. In order to move around each biome, players will need to solve simple puzzles. These puzzles include taking pictures of specific flowers to make them bloom or whistling to get the attention of the animals.

Beasts of Maravilla Island Gameplay 1

While most of the species in each of Beasts of Maravilla Island's biomes are fairly simple to locate and take pictures of, things become more challenging when trying to capture several specific behaviors of the Biome's special creatures. In the first area, players will need to capture four images of the Rainbow Crested Quetzal Monkey, and in the next two areas four images each of the Maravillan Scaled Otter and the Golden Crowned Griffin. These behaviors can be triggered at certain locations throughout each biome and will require a whistle or a command from the player to initiate. Unfortunately, these behavior-specific photos are limited to just one species in each area.

There are several features that could be added to encourage exploration and add to the current playtime in Beasts of Maravilla Island. Adding a photo grading system similar to the photo ranking in New Pokémon Snap would give players much more to do during gameplay. Currently, most species on Maravilla Island are easy to find, and players can snap any photo from any angle as long as the required species is the subject. By adding a rating system, players would have the incentive to spend more time getting certain angles of each creature and would have more to do in each biome. The ability to interact with more than just the special species in each biome would also be a fun way to engage with the surroundings, allowing players to get special shots of birds if they whistle at the right time, or use the camera flash to trigger an illumination event on the different bugs and plants.

Beasts Of Maravilla Island Gameplay 2

The biggest setbacks for Beasts of Maravilla Island are the glitches and bugs that occur when interacting with the environment. Frequently, players will find themselves clipping through foliage and rocks. This also occurs when climbing vines and trees. If the player bumps into a dead-end on the map, Marina can become stuck on objects and thy will need to quit and reload the game in order to continue. These issues give the game an unfinished appearance and can be frustrating and disruptive to gameplay. A patch to smooth out climbing animations and prevent glitching through objects would greatly improve overall playability.

Beasts of Maravilla Island is a great game for fans of fantasy creatures, magical settings, and beautiful artwork. The gameplay, while simple, is intuitive and excellent for gamers of any age. While several improvements could be added to help Beasts of Maravilla Island compete with other photography-style puzzle games, the current gameplay is charming and relaxing. With a few patches to fix the bugs and glitches currently present, Beasts of Maravilla Island could be a strong pick for an easy, fantasy adventure.

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Beasts of Maravilla Island is available now on Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems. A Nintendo Switch code was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.