I’m going to open my review of My Little Universe on Xbox with a disclaimer: I played the first half hour or so on the wrong settings. Right when you fire up the game—I think it’s literally the first thing you see after the title screen—My Little Universe asks if you want to set your game actions to automatic or manual. I set it to manual without really thinking and forgot about it. Cut to half an hour later, where my thumb had gotten carpal-tunnel sore from spamming the X button to manually gather each resource and fight each enemy. I was fully prepared to write this as a criticism in my review—“be“ prepared for a lot of button-mashing”—until” then I realized that it was my fault. After resetting the game actions to automatic, My Little Universe played like a breeze. You can even play it with one hand, using the left stick to move around and occasionally hitting the A button to interact with landmarks.
After a lightning-fast tutorial that teaches you the basic mechanics of resource-gathering, My Little Universe starts you out on a small planet called Gaia, totally blank except for a single Civilization-style hexagonal tile. There are a few trees, and a symbol that indicates it costs 10 wood to unlock the next tile. The more tiles you unlock, the more resources appear—including rocks, precious metals, and treasure chests full of gold coins. Enemies also start to appear, from goblins to skeletal pirates, but you can easily beat them back with a sword.
Before long, tiles start to include important landmarks such as refineries to create new resources, foundries to upgrade your tools, and traders that can convert your resources to coins. You can play a fishing minigame that involves rapidly hiding the D-pad in a certain order, exchanging the fish you catch for tool upgrades. Collecting resources also allows you to level up, giving you access to powerful abilities that help you gather faster and dispatch enemies more easily.
Eventually, the world starts to include more exotic terrain, from mining caves to volcanic mountains to picturesque tropical beaches. As you climb the tiles into the mountains, at last you find a powerful, singular resource that activates a portal to the next world. When you pass through the portal, you also see just how far you’ve progressed through the current world, in case you want to stick around and discover more before moving on. I stepped through the Gaia portal with just 48% of the planet uncovered (this was after several hours), and I had to make the choice whether to stay and unlock more tiles or go forward.
My Little Universe plays a bit like Civilization meets Stardew Valley, combining tile-based exploration, resource-gathering, and combat. The graphics are excellent, with vibrant colors and charming cartoonish environments, and there was no lag or stuttering (impressive for a brand-new release!). The mechanics are so easy I can list them here: use the stick to move, A to interact with landmarks, Y to switch tools, and X to gather resources manually. As I said, if everything is set to automatic, it’s just a matter of running up to the right resources and waiting as they fill up your inventory. My only nitpick is that resource-gathering can be tedious and takes a while, especially as the numbers climb. At the start of the game, it only takes 10 to 15 pieces of wood to unlock a new tile, but by the end of the first world, those numbers are closer to 150 to 200. Luckily, you can upgrade your tools to be stronger and faster, so there’s some scaling to match the increase in resource requirements.
When I sat down to play My Little Universe, I easily spent two hours on it without really noticing. It’s engaging without being very difficult, and if you can forgive some tediousness with resource-gathering, it’s a great way to unwind. I, for one, can’t wait to see what new planets the game has to offer once I make some more headway on Gaia. Just be sure to set the mechanics to automatic—your thumbs will thank you.
Score: 9/10
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Related: Reviews by Ian Robinson-Lambert
I've loved video games ever since I started playing Mario Kart on my parents' Wii back in seventh grade. These days, you can find me playing a mix of historical RPGs and horror (shout-out to Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil). I also love a good puzzle, and of course I still have a soft spot for the Super Mario series!
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