Lil Gator Game is an adorable adventure from MegaWobble and Playtonic Friends. The game captures the best of both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Wind Waker.
Upon first blush, Lil Gator Game looks like a zoomed-in and smoothed-out version of A Short Hike. While the game does certainly appear to be heavily influenced by the indie darling — from its adorable animal characters to its larger park setting — it was also clearly influenced by another set of games: The Legend of Zelda.
The developers at MegaWobble have packed Lil Gator Game to the brim with Zelda references. The game literally starts off with a conversation between two characters about a “legend of hero” game, and one of the first items you get is a T-shirt turned glider with a design that looks just like Link’s paraglider in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But Lil Gator Game isn’t just a transparent ploy to appeal to longtime Zelda fans through references; it’s the Zelda-like I didn’t know I needed. It combines the exploration elements of Breath of the Wild with a sense of charm and earnestness that reminds me of The Wind Waker, telling an overarching story that’s a joyous ode to those of us who grew up playing Zelda games and wanting to be Link.
Lil Gator Game follows the story of a little gator — I named mine Ham — and their older sister. When you start, you see the two as kids as they decide to make their own version of a “legend of hero” game that they can play outside with two players. Fast-forward a few years, and the older sister has grown up and gone to college. To Ham’s delight, she returns home for fall break, but he’s soon sad to find she’s glued to her computer as she works on a group project. Ham then takes it upon themselves to create a game that’s so cool that their sister can’t help but want to play again, just as the two did as children.
