Woodo - Switch Review

Created by Tiny Monks Tales, Woodo follows the memories of Foxy as she’s suddenly moved from her comfortable online world to a relative’s house in the countryside. Told over a single summer, Woodo is designed to show how formulaic one summer can be for a person through its interesting gameplay and storytelling. As someone who enjoys creating 3D wooden puzzles, I was quite interested in how a digital version would play.

The Good

One of the first things I noticed when playing Woodo was how good it looked. Items either have a wood grain finish, or they appear to be made of something akin to clay. The water looks realistic, creating a nice contrast to the rest of the items. It’s definitely satisfying to see how the scene slowly builds piece by piece, creating a wooden diorama that tells a story of a moment in time. It’s quite visceral and you can almost feel the textures.

Woodo introduces the player to the game by showing the scenes, but with certain items blocked out in white, just waiting to be filled. In this way, it is exactly like a puzzle. Pieces are taken from the side and need to be placed in the correct position. However, the game doesn’t stick to this one format. Sometimes, the players need to fill in one big scene. Other times, they get sections to fill as the story progresses, similar to a diorama that shows a passage of time. Aside from this, the game will mix things up, removing the blocked-out items in the scene instead, making players rely on reflections to figure out their positions, or else having the items only be shadows. While these do increase the difficulty a bit due to the unfamiliarity, they always make a delightful change. I just wish they’d done more of them. 

The story of Foxy going to the countryside isn’t a story no one has told before. While it is treading old ground, the game manages to make it feel nostalgic rather than boring. It feels like we too are returning to a time in our childhood that was perhaps a blessing in disguise. It reminded me of a lot of the older books I read growing up, including Enid Blyton’s The Magic Wishing Chair and the Enchanted Forest. It may not be new, but it is comforting, which is exactly what Woodo wants.

The hint system is incredibly generous, as its only limitation is you can’t mash it. It recharges in a few seconds, so players aren’t sitting there waiting for it to charge.

TL;DR

• Adorable Aesthetic
• Different game elements
• Nostalgic Story
• Hint system

The Bad

Woodo is only five chapters long and I unfortunately spent three of them fighting with the game. I expected the controls to work one way, and instead they worked a different way. I wasn’t able to enjoy the game because I was so frustrated that I couldn’t control the camera as I wanted. This was compounded by the tutorial, but I’ll explain about that later. The right thumbstick would move the camera around a set point. ZL was zoom out and ZR was zoom in. Anytime I focused on an area, I would automatically press the B button, as I expected that to be what would take me out of the zoom in. This happened for the entirety of the game. The left thumbstick was for moving items; unless you didn’t have one, then it sometimes moved the camera too. There was a pan, but weirdly it also zoomed in, so even if you were just trying to move the focal point, it would get closer. As I became used to the controls, I didn’t feel like I was fighting with the game as much, but it was still annoying when there were sections I couldn’t even reach without the hints' help. At the end of chapter three, I was so annoyed with the controls that I played the demo on Steam just to see if it was a me issue. It played much easier on Steam and I was able to complete the puzzles much quicker. I didn’t try the mouse mode in Switch 2, as I use a vertical mouse and the Switch 2 can’t do that. 

Starting off with a pretty basic interactive tutorial, Woodo quickly swaps to an instruction booklet type system where the player goes through a booklet to learn how to play. I swear I read the whole thing, but it didn’t include the pan option. After this booklet, the game will remind you what buttons are needed to zoom in and out if the game thinks you’ve forgotten it. However, it also started giving tutorials at the beginning of the chapters as well. Chapter 2 reminded me that I could zoom in and out. By chapter three, the tutorial told me that I would be able to pan the scene around. Hallelujah! Finally, the actual thing I felt the game was missing was here! This definitely improved my experience, but I still had occasional problems. It was just odd that the game felt the need to have three different types of tutorials. Interactive, a booklet and then reminders. Why not have an interactive tutorial as needed? It just seemed wholly unnecessary.

If you’re anything like me, you play your Switch in handheld mode. This is because I never get a chance to play on the TV, as my mother monopolises it. This presented a bit of a problem when I was playing Woodo, as a lot of the story is told to the player as they complete sections of the scene. As I was focused on trying to place the pieces, a lot of the time I was miss entire segments of the story, neither hearing them nor noticing the subtitles. When I ended up playing the demo on the PC, I was astounded at the soundtrack that I could barely hear through the Switch’s speakers. It would have been nice if the game had shown the story rather than just say it. If it had been similar to Momento in its storytelling, it would have improved it immensely. What I did seem to hear all the time was the most irritating sound effects that would activate when the player mouses over them. It’s designed to bring the scene to life, but while they might be cute the first time, they very quickly get old. Additionally, one level had a section where Foxy was humming over the OST as the player reached a certain point in progression. Maybe I was already frustrated; I’m not sure, but I found it wholly annoying.

The last sore point for me is that I would sometimes become stuck in the game. It’s a puzzle game; it happens. It happened to me all the time when I was playing Tempopo, but unlike the amazement I felt in that game when the answer was revealed to me; I just felt annoyed. A lot of the time the items I couldn’t find were hidden in places that you wouldn’t look. One item was behind a backpack. Another lot of items was underneath the diorama, which I wasn’t even aware was there. You could only see it if you zoomed all the way out, while the game gave you no need to actually do it. Another time, I couldn’t find where to put one puzzle piece and the camera swung around wildly to the location. I had seen this section but couldn’t figure out how to get to it. Almost every puzzle reveal felt like an “ugh” moment rather than an “oh!” one, which is what it should be. One reveal I literally said, “How would I even get the camera there?!”In addition, the puzzle pieces aren’t consistent either. For example, Ben and Foxy are almost always one piece, while other characters are split into separate parts. I’m not sure if this is designed to adjust the difficulty, but I would have preferred that they either stick with one or the other.

TL;DR

• Controls are awkward on Switch
• Tutorials are weirdly fragmented
• Sound is lost on Switch
• Inconsistent puzzles

Final Score: 6/10

Despite all my complaints, I did enjoy the game, especially the latter chapters when I was much less frustrated. However, I would suggest anyone that is interested in this game to try the demo on the Switch or Steam to see if you have the same problems. The cosy space is incredibly crowded and I applaud them for trying to do something unique, but I don’t think it’s enough. Unlike other cosy games, I didn’t find the pull to play with Woodo like I did with others. Had it not been for this review, I probably wouldn’t have bothered playing it again after the first chapter. I’m hoping that they use experience to improve their next game.

Thank you for checking out our Woodo Switch review, thank you to Daedalic Entertainment for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

• Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
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