A Tiny Sticker Tale Review – Review
The new up and coming genre of “cozy games” has been inundating the market as of the last five years. Just this year alone we have Fae Farm, Mineko’s Night Market and Garden Buddies, to name a few. It can feel very overwhelming, but I’m here to tell you Tiny Sticker Tale can definitely be the short little break you need between lengthy AAA titles.
A Tiny Sticker Tale’s world is one filled with friendly anthropomorphic animals. You arrive on an island, sticker book in hand, to search for your father, while also tasked with helping the inhabitants of the island. Of course, there’s mischief and mystery afoot, so you have to be ready to explore the grid-style map–similar to the NES and SNES Legend of Zelda games. Moving from screen to screen to traverse the relatively small world makes for super simple navigation, as it takes roughly a minute or two to travel the entire map.
The main interaction point for the game is the titular stickers. Most things in the world can be turned into stickers by moving to a sticker menu and picking up an object or person. Once in hand, you can put them in your sticker book to be saved for later. This is how you solve puzzles and assist the lively characters you meet along your journey. Does a character want to play his instrument for a crowd of five? Go find other characters and place them in your sticker book, then bring them back to make the crowd. Can’t get across a river? Simply find a bridge two maps over, take it into your sticker book, then place it over the water to get across. These sticker puzzles lead to some clever a-ha moments that are both adorable in presentation but also simple enough to rarely stump.
It’s not a particularly deep game, but that doesn’t stop it from just feeling like a warm sweater on a chilly day. Also considering its run time is anywhere from 3-5 hours total, it doesn’t need to be particularly complex to be a worthwhile experience. The one major gripe I had is that the ending tries to create a lot of emotional weight that just wasn’t there throughout the rest of the narrative. The plot provides some light followthrough with story, but mostly it’s sparse and to attempt a big sentimental swing felt tacked on at best. That still doesn’t prevent A Tiny Sticker Tale from being nothing short of delightful through and through. A bite-sized portion of happiness that is the definition of cozy games.
