Beasts of Maravilla Island [Xbox]
Developed by Banana Bird Studios, Beasts of Maravilla Island is a fantastically relaxing exploration game that sees you play as Marina Montez, a young wildlife photographer who has embarked upon a journey to scope out all of the weird and wonderful creatures on Maravilla Island. As a child, her grandfather would tell her tales of this mysterious, seemingly mythical island, and now, upon discovering details to prove the island’s existence within her grandfather’s journal, Marina sets off to find out more about this magical place.
Armed with your trusty camera, you’ll wander through the wilderness, taking photos of the flora and fauna populating the island. The Journal can be filled with the photos you take, and you’ll want to keep an eye out for unusual poses and behaviours of particular creatures, as there are a variety of Objective Photos that you can snap to expand the Journal further. Certain plants and animals will react to you, whether you whistle, or with the flash of your camera, and this can lead to some interesting outcomes.
Split into different areas, you’ve got the Singing Jungle, Glimmering River and Painted Plateau, all of which are very aptly named. Everything has a very mystical, wondrous look, with gorgeous colours and well designed layouts that lead you in a clear direction whilst retaining an explorable feel - walking over tree branches and climbing giant beanstalks to reach higher platforms, and with different plants or creatures being the trigger for progression into new areas, it makes the world feel more cohesive and alive. You can even look over detailed diorama Statues of each animal within the Extras menu, which is pretty cool since you get to see everything up close and personal.
There’s a lot of very ethereal yet authentic feeling environmental sounds throughout the island, with birds chirping, atmospheric echoes and the twinkling rush of water to name but a few. You’ll hear animals singing, and you can even mimic their songs by whistling to gain their trust and attention in order to nab some fantastic shots. The soundtrack is very calming and tranquil, and fuses well with all of the environmental effects. You can listen to the soundtrack within the Extras menu, and you can also look over the Art Gallery to see various concept art - something I wish more games included, as I love seeing how all of the ideas come together.
Movement and camera controls feel a bit awkward at times, although it’s hard to put my finger on why. We also had a few issues of getting stuck whilst climbing vines, that there was seemingly no way to resolve other than to quit the game - so we learned to be super careful about staying away from the edges, as this seemed to be where it happened most. There were also on occasion some glitches within the start menu and on pop-ups asking if you want to move on from the current area, where the game didn’t seem to want to register us trying to toggle to the other options, although this was fairly minor. The in-game photography feels better, thankfully, with this being such a core element to the game, and interacting with various creatures and their habitat in order to perfectly construct your snapshots is enjoyable. You can retake photos of everything you come across to enable a better photo to be chosen and displayed in the Journal - although there’s no system to rank photos which would have been a nice inclusion to encourage you to try to capture the best photos possible.
Available for £8.39 on the Xbox Store, this is sure to be a hit for fans of games like Pokémon Snap - and with the ability to roam freely, it allows for a more immersive experience. It’s a game that you’ll have a relaxing, peaceful time with - and one that can be completed in just a few hours, even with exploring every inch of the world carefully. It could have done with being a little longer, whether that be through more areas of the island or extra flora/fauna, as well as having Objectives for more of the creatures, as it’s over before you know it. Still, we really enjoyed playing Beasts of Maravilla Island, and would highly recommend it to people looking for a good game to chill out with.
In the end, we decided to give Beasts of Maravilla Island the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.
Have you played Beasts of Maravilla Island yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Whitethorn Digital for the Beasts of Maravilla Island Xbox review code!
