While Ooblets successfully combines the best parts of the Harvest Moon and Pokemon franchises, its overtly cutesy aesthetic and occasionally cringe-inducing dialogue will be a dealbreaker for some.
Singleplayer.
When looking at Ooblets, it’s hard to imagine that it would be the focus of one of the biggest (and most hateful) gaming controversies of 2019, which all began when the developers Glumberland (wisely) accepted an offer to release Ooblets as an Epic Game Store exclusive in exchange for Epic Games providing much-needed capital to fund development.
Unfortunately, some in the Ooblets community felt this was reason enough to launch one of the most truly revolting hate campaigns against a small developer that I have had the misfortune to witness, with the husband and wife duo behind Ooblets receiving a torrent of death threats and racial abuse, that honestly says more about the “Steam only community” than anything I or anyone else could write about them.
I have nothing against people who only want to use a single launcher. I feel it’s a poor choice and that only by trying multiple launchers and platforms can one truly experience the best gaming offers, but people have the right to choose where they spend their money.
That being said, if you choose to limit yourself in any way, you have zero right to get upset when a game launches on a platform that you have refused to install, and certainly no right to participate in an online harassment campaign against developers who made the right choice for their game and company.
Fortunately, time heals most wounds, and while there are still some very angry “potential consumers” of Ooblets who refuse to give money to any other billionaire storefront owner than Gabe Newell, Ooblets has continued to thrive on Epic Games Store and later Xbox and Switch, having completed its early access journey in 2022, Ooblets enjoys a very healthy 92% positive rating on google, which for a small indie title is about as good as you could hope for.
While it seems Ooblets and Glumberland have their happy ending, I can only hope that those who caused such pain truly repent for their sins and that, regardless of that repentance, Glumberland can forgive those who treated them in such a despicable manner.
Ooblets is adorable, and for those who are looking for a surprisingly deep yet equally adorable game, there are few better options to be found on PC or Xbox (while Animal Crossing reigns supreme on the Nintendo Switch, sorry, Glumberland!),
Does this go too far at times? Perhaps not so much in Ooblets’ visual design, but rather its use of baby talk for UI buttons, with words like “Yuh”, “Uhuh”, and “Nuh” being used in place of real words such as Cancel or Confirm.
UI issues aside, I feel the only other time Ooblets crosses the line between cute and cringe is during some instances of dialogue where the word “Toot” (a more child-friendly way of saying fart) is used far too often, including several variations of the word making appearances in the name of in-game items.
Despite most dialogue being sickeningly sweet, there are plenty of inside jokes for adults, including references to online conspiracy theories, environmentalism, and even murder, with one character (a sweet old lady) warning the player not to dig deeper than 6 foot in some parts of their farm, before making a conspicuous exit.
Image credit Oooblets - Published and developed by Glumberland.
Ooblets is a strange mix of the mediocre and brilliant, as while it combines some of the best parts of Harvest Moon and Pokemon, it cannot hold a light to either franchise individually, yet still manages to be brilliant.
In short, Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games are much better farming sims, and Pokemon games are much better monster-collecting games than Ooblets could ever hope to be.
However, what Ooblets has in its favour is while it may not be as good as the market leaders in any single area, it combines the charm of Animal Crossing with a rudimentary farming system and fairly comprehensive (if not little strange) monster collecting and battle mechanic.
When combined, these elements make Ooblets a mechanically sound title and one that has plenty to offer fans of the farming simulation and monster collecting genres; even if there are better games available to cater to each respective genre, there is enough overlap between them to ensure a wide enough demographic of players to ensure Ooblets longterm success and hopefully continued development.
Most people have heard the phrase “getting dressed in the dark” or the rather cruel “getting dressed at goodwill” However, I feel that neither of these statements can truly qualify just how badly dressed the vast majority of Ooblets’ NPC are with characters rather daringly wearing not only sandals with socks but occasionally shorts and a Christmas sweater, or more bizarrely soccer shorts and a heavy winter coat.
If I could sum up the entire fashion sense of Ooblets, it would be “people who get dressed in the dark from the trash can behind a long abandoned goodwill, where anything even remotely fashionable had long ago been sold, stolen or used as oil rags.”
While Ooblets has a card-based battle system, it is not what you may expect, with the citizens of Badgetown preferring to force Ooblets to engage in dance battles rather than open warfare, which I suppose is all well and good considering how much Ooblets love to dance, and how good they are at it.
Due to Ooblets cutesy and unisex aesthetic, there are few options to customise your character’s appearance, with players being unable to select a body type or any form of facial hair, which I found disappointing as a large fellow with a pretty impressive beard.
Curiously, many NPCs have beards, but player characters cannot grow one.
Oooblets is a management video game developed and published by Glumberland, it was released on 15 July 2020 and retails for $29.99.
Oooblets is available on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
On average Ooblets takes between 10 and 75 hours to complete.
Estimated completion times are derived from various sources and may vary based on the skill level of each player.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Ooblets is rated PEGI 3+ and contains:
I like Ooblets a lot, and I admire the developers’ dedication and resilience in the face of outright hostility from less savoury elements of the PC Gaming Community.
However, it is a “sickeningly sweet” game that, for some, will be too cute to handle. As a result, I can only recommend it to those who either like the aesthetic or can look past it and enjoy the excellent gameplay underneath.
