A Tiny Sticker Tale - Switch Review
"The colourful presentation is just not enough to bring them home."
A Tiny Sticker Tale is a top-down puzzle game where you must place objects from the world and transform them into stickers for your magical sticker book, only to take them out again when the right moment calls for it. Playing as Flynn the donkey, you'll solve puzzles, make new friends, and uncover the mystery of why a cheeky racoon is causing mischief on the island. Developed by Ogre Pixel, the same developer of the adorable The Lonesome Village, A Tiny Sticker Tale sets out to create an equally adorable experience in a sticker book-sized package.
The Good
A Tiny Sticker Tale's main concept is simple yet effective. Turning real world objects into stickers, which then allow you to solve puzzles with the stickers you collect, makes you consider every object within each frame. It's perhaps a tad reminiscent of the infamous Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and while the sheer mention of that game may make some cringe, the implementation of removing and placing stickers being the primary mechanic takes a more fundamental approach to the game's core gameplay structure, making it feel more natural and less, pardon the pun, unnecessarily stuck on.
The game is wonderfully charming, and you only need to watch the trailer to see that. Ogre Pixel have a very distinctive art style that makes it look it was plucked straight out of a children's picture book. The wide Bamby-like eyes, the use of bright colours and the miniature character art is exemplified through the stickers' white outlines, making this game a visual treat to play through.
TL;DR
- Simple yet effective gameplay concept
- Wonderfully charming
The Bad
A Tiny Sticker Tale was clearly built first and foremost with PC in mind. Controlling a cursor with a joystick is always cumbersome, and that is about 80% of what you do in this game. I could've forgiven this if touchscreen were an option for the Switch version but, unfortunately, the only thing touching your screen will do is leave fingerprints all over it.
Having a map and/or a quest log would've saved a heap of time. It's very frustrating to have to remember what everyone wants and where they are, to the point that the annoyance tends to overshadow the relaxing mood that the game is going for.
For the most part, the story feels tacked on and more of an afterthought. With its short runtime of approximately two hours, A Tiny Sticker Tale feels like a miniature project for Ogre Pixel, one that was kept small in scope in order to rush it to market. In fact, the aforementioned The Lonesome Village only launched last year, and if Ogre Pixel gave A Tiny Sticker Tale a little more time in the oven to cook, it could've been something special.
TL;DR
- Clunky control scheme
- Exclusion of a map and/or quest log
- Lack of scope
Final Score: 6/10
A puzzle game needs to have great puzzles; that much is obvious, but when said puzzles are presented through a monotonous cursor system and unmemorable characters, the colourful presentation is just not enough to bring them home. A Tiny Sticker Tale had promise and while it's not a total loss (you can still find an enjoyable couple of hours here), it feels like Ogre Pixel left a lot on unimplemented here. Oh well, there's always next year.
Thank you for checking out our A Tiny Sticker Tale Switch review, thank you to Ogre Pixel (via Stride PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:
- Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
- Bel Cubitt
- Jack Caven
- NintenVania Podcast
- RedHero