Nintendo fans looking for games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Switch now have the perfect, bite-sized representation of its best elements: A Short Hike. The 2019 PC indie game surprise-dropped on the handheld hybrid after the August Indie World Showcase presentation, and it's full of the exploration and discovery that made Breath of the Wild so great.
Most Zelda-like indie games take inspiration from (and often directly reference) the older, action-heavy games in the series. Blossom Tales echoes A Link to the Past, for example, as do Oceanhorn, Anodyne, and others. Since Breath of the Wild's approach to open-world gaming revolutionized how many fans look at the Zelda franchise - and the entire genre - relatively recently, fewer indie games have had a chance to iterate on its successes.
A Short Hike, one of six Switch indie games released yesterday after Nintendo's Direct-style indie showcase, is one of the first to capitalize on the innovations Nintendo made in Breath of the Wild. It follows Claire, an anthropomorphic bird, as she journeys up Hawk Peak Provincial Park's titular mountain. The hike is indeed short, lasting only around two to three hours on a thorough playthrough, but it's packed with interesting discoveries and satisfying gameplay.
How A Short Hike Captures Breath Of The Wild's Best Elements
The biggest differences between Breath of the Wild and A Short Hike are scale and challenge. A Short Hike is considerably smaller than the Zelda epic, and there's no combat or fail states in its open world. But beyond that, the experiences are quite similar. A Short Hike features Breath of the Wild's all-important "climb, glide, climb" movement loop, letting players scale almost any surface (barring their upgradable stamina meter allows for it). The indie game actually improves on this system, adding a momentum-building dive maneuver and limited wing-flapping to allow for more mid-air verticality. Players use their gliding and climbing to explore the world at their own pace, as a Breath of the Wild-like lack of quest markers means they'll complete side-tasks for the park's inhabitants based on context clues and their own knowledge of its landscape. This exploration is constantly rewarded with extra cash, items, and interesting NPCs, and it all culminates in a beautiful moment after reaching the mountain's peak.
At only $8, A Short Hike is a must-buy for Breath of the Wild fans. It's short and sweet, has a charming, "crunchy" pixel-art style, and delivers the kind of free-form, peaceful wandering that made the Switch's killer app so compelling. Hopefully creator Adam Robinson-Yu is just the first in a wave of indie developers making games that capture the essence of Breath of the Wild's Hyrule.
A Short Hike released on Nintendo Switch on August 18, 2020.