*Note: I received a free game code for the Nintendo Switch for the game for my honest review. Thank you to Future Friends Games for the code.
Gibbon: Beyond The Trees hooked me in right away with the beautiful artwork that looks like a watercolor painting come to life. I also loved the sounds of the jungle and the singing of the gibbons. The sounds blend together perfectly. There were so many lovely details right at the start right down to the tutorial showing how to move your gibbon so you can swing through the trees, run, and slide as you play through the side scrolling of the game.
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| Learning how to move. |
The game plays like a storybook which I love introducing the little family of gibbons traveling through the jungle. I loved the artwork in this game because it's very well done giving a sense of being immersed in their world as you swing through the trees. It took me a bit to get used to moving at such a fast pace and I failed a lot of jumps, but I didn't mind so much because I was enjoying the game.
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| The gibbon family travels together. |
The music for the game is excellent as it changes according to the setting and tone of the story mixing well with the gibbon songs and jungle sounds. The landscape changes as you move showing how vast the jungle is and each area is quite pretty with the artwork. I found myself in awe of how much detail was in each area because it added to the wonderful elements of the game.
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| Another beautiful area in the game. |
The big thing about Gibbon: Beyond The Trees is it's not just a beautiful game. It comes with an important message about the exploitation of gibbons, climate change, deforestation, and how it is vital that we do everything in our power to work towards protecting our planet. The game does this in a powerful, thought provoking way with the gradual changing of the landscape showing more metal, fire, and scorched earth. The sounds change also with more clanging and city sounds showing how each thing affects the ecosystem.
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| Deforestation upsets the balance. |
There are less trees to swing from as the landscape changes to towns and cities. It's all part of the story and because the game does such a good job of simply showing through art how each thing affects everything I was emotionally invested in the story and understood the message they were sharing with everyone.
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| Swinging through a town. |
Gibbon: Beyond The Trees is not very long, but honestly it doesn't need to be because it gets the message across very clearly. The storybook elements and gameplay work together perfectly to show that we have the power to change things if we work together. This is absolutely a game that is wonderful and should be played by everyone because it shows quite well how art can be powerful and get us to think about the things that matter. That in itself is an amazing thing.
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| A beautiful and powerful game. |
The team that developed and worked on the game also showed at the end ways to spread awareness and how we can help. They also have it on their website which you can check out here: https://www.gibbongame.com/gibbons.html Together, we can evoke change.
*Gibbon: Beyond The Trees is available on the following platforms: Steam, Nintendo Switch
*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer
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