★★★★★ Charming
Wed Dec 28 2022 randomperson47839I was skeptical when I first got this game. I thought it would be childish/overly simplistic but wow…was I wrong. The graphics in the game are just breathtaking-you really feel like you are there. It is so cool to be able to explore the island and to save it. There are a couple minor issues with the game: first, a lot of the “tasks” in the game involve tapping the screen once instead of actually manually completing the task. For example: in the part of the game where you fix up the castle, all you have to do to build stairs or bridges is just tap the hammer icon on top of the broken area. Same thing with treating the animals with the first aid kit-all you do is tap the “first aid” icon. I feel that this game could’ve been a lot richer and more challenging if you could actually do the stuff instead of just tapping an icon. The other issue is that there are only 2 speeds at which you can make Alba walk: really slow or sprinting. An adjustable walking speed feature would be much better. These issues wouldn’t cause me to take off a star, they’re just suggestions that would make the game a bit better. Other than that, this is a really awesome and relaxing game with relevant messages about protecting the environment and appreciating nature. :) Edit: WHERE IS THE NEW UPDATE?! I finished the whole game, all the tasks and I still don’t see it. :/ it says in the app description that there’s a new chapter.
★★★★★ captivating
Wed Dec 16 2020 philodygmnThis beautifully captures the joys of managed civic wildlife affinity through a child’s eyes, with well-observed details at virtually every turn. The controls are needlessly gimmicky on default settings and pose a real impediment to the experience, especially lack of landscape on iPad and the choice to make gyroscopic controls ignore the starting orientation of the device. In spite of all that, the beauty of the experience shines through and I found myself getting a little choked-up toward the end.
I don’t understand why there’s no photo mode. Hopefully they add that. All there is, is a handful of lookout points where the UI disappears except even then a pesky “X” in the upper-right _always_ stays visible (couldn’t you hide it behind a tap?).
This game is the stuff Apple Arcade subscriptions are made of. Please, Apple, don’t change your emphasis away from gems like this in favor of more “monetization” and “engagement”. This game is exactly what someone would pay a premium subscription for to get exclusive content of this caliber, even if replayability may be limited (in fact, it’s such a lovely place to be that simply booting it up and spending time in it could actually be the type of “engagement” that gets players coming back, _without_ distorting the creative of the project!).
★★★★★ Adorable
Mon Dec 21 2020 JMII89Great little game. I’ll get the only negative out of the way right off the bat: it’s short, like only a few hours to complete the main quest. Thus I would love to see another island added to explore further. As someone who lives on a lake I’ve seen and heard many of these birds before, even their behaviors in game are accurate to the real world - bravo.
Good graphics, fantastic sounds and smooth game play controls. It’s truly a pleasure to play with no stress in a relaxing open world. The game is low key - explore at your own speed, nothing is forced or rushed. It’s really about walking around and experiencing your surroundings. Observing nature and noticing small things (like finding the gecko). It’s a VR version of Seek where you capture photos of various wildlife, mostly birds. Unlike most games in which the difficulty ramps up this game gets easier as you complete tasks restoring the environment by cleaning up trash, saving animals and fixing things in an eco-friendly way. Excellent game to teach kids about the joys of the natural world. Colorful town full of friendly people and simple message bubble exchanges. The use of an in-game smart phone for photo tasks and messages is a clever way of moving the plot forward.
Just super cute and very enjoyable. Well done by the developers! Hopefully they make a second island to explore.
★★★★★ Best arcade game
Sat Dec 12 2020 lum1nit3This is the best Apple Arcade game I have ever played. The graphics are great, and all the animals are beautiful as well. Although I do feel like there are a few bugs maybe.
I do not know the last 3 achievements nor do I know if they are out yet. But I feel like 1 of them is identifying all animals. I beat the game and identified all the animals before the game ended and your on the last day, Clara who is supposed to give you that badge thing for your hat ( I beat the game twice because I wanted the achievements) doesn’t talk about you scanning all the animals when you identified them all before the last day. Therefor I can’t get the badge for your hat. Another few badges that I have in mind but I don’t know are repairing everything on the islands and also cleaning up everything on the islands. Again I do not know if these are the last 3 badges I am missing but if they are then you have to complete them after the festival.
But I have absolutely no complaints and those are just small bugs for achievements that might not even be achievements. So thank you for making this awesome game and please continue to update it :)
★★★★★ Take As Long As You Need
Mon Jan 18 2021 Apple VideologsThe game could be said to be short by those who blast through the story, but I’ve sunk in more than a few hours already and I’m only halfway through the story and still have at least a dozen animals to photograph - as well as lots of litter to pick up and probably more bird houses to fix too. This is a very enjoyable game and I think the entire concept is great. The only suggestions I have would be to add the ability to play in landscape mode: one side walks and the other moves the camera - the portrait mode is nice but can be a bit clunky at times. If landscape mode was integrated, you could have Alba holding the phone for pictures in landscape mode too. I also think it would be neat to have simple areas to quickly see/explore indoors - like the church on the hill, or the flower shop in town - but the game is already pretty detailed and large. I have never had any issues at all, except one time I left the game standing on one of the bridged I fixed by the rice fields and when I booted back up, I was in the small aquaduct/stream - thankfully there was an easy ‘reset character’ button in the settings I had seen earlier.
★★★★★ Blown Away
Sun Feb 06 2022 Kg LilsIf you came to Apple Arcade to find a cozy game, look no further. This is the first review that I’ve ever felt compelled to write for any app, if that tells you anything about the impact it had on me. I was searching for a game that could provide a beautiful visual experience with a captivating story line and stress free quests, expecting a downloadable app to only tick off one or two of those desires with maybe an hour of entertainment. I reluctantly started Alba, expecting a game geared toward children. What I found was a heartwarming and beautifully written narrative that caused me to nearly play the game straight through, revisiting it the next morning to reach the end. Saving and documenting animals, finding hidden objects, bonding with other characters, stopping to admire stunning scenery throughout a pretty large island… this game truly had everything I’ve been looking for, and played so easily on my iPad! I even found myself emotional at the end. I hope Apple Arcade continues to offer games of this style and caliber - I would be hooked. Thank you Ustwo, Plug in Digital and Apple Arcade for this beautiful experience!
★★★★★ Load and Won’t Open
Sun Jan 10 2021 Irelevant OpinionI started playing this game about 3 days ago. I got about halfway through the game, and I was in love. I was even telling all of my friends about the game because I enjoyed the graphics and the adventure, and something about it just made me happy. But then, when I saved my progress and left the game, I was never able to open the app again. I would tap on it, it would load the “Apple Arcade” intro, and then the screen would go black and kick me out. Sometimes it wouldn’t even make it to the Apple Arcade and just kick me out. I tried everything- resetting (regular and hard reset), offloading the app and downloading it, fully deleting the app and re-downloading it, checking my storage to make sure that wasn’t the problem, checking my wifi, everything. And absolutely nothing worked. My subscription is still going strong and I didn’t cancel it, and when I download it on my iPad it lets me play on there. It’s just my phone. I checked to see if it was a compatibility issue, but it wasn’t that either because I have the latest software update and the iPhone 11. I really don’t know what else to do, and I’m really upset because I really was in love with the game and now I have to start all over on my iPad. If I didn’t have this issue, I would’ve given it 5 stars. I’m really disappointed to be honest, because I was looking forward to finishing the game.
★★★★★ Good Game, But Not a Big Fan of the Use of Slang
Sun Jul 24 2022 12joeyI like this game due to the realism in its environments and the message that wildlife should be protected, but the only thing I don't like about it is the use of modern slang, mainly used by the character Ines. She often exclaims "YAS!", a butchered form of the word "yes", when she's happy or excited about something, which leads me to believe that you made her do it just to show how "hip" and "cool" she can be with the kids. I don't like it when a game or cartoon uses outdated slang like "yas", which for some reason is still being used by some people to this day, to try to remain hip with today's kids. I think you could've done a better job. Maybe have Ines say something else in place of "yas"? Maybe "HEYYYY!" or "YOOOOO!" when she greets Alba in the beginning of the game, "Yay" or "Yeah" when they fix the bridge and get close to receiving all the petition signatures they need, and perhaps a cry of “YESSSS!" (with an E, not an A) when they finally get all the signatures. That might make the game a little better to play and not have Ines be such a cringy character. Other than that, it's a good game. I think you could do away with the modern slang, though.
