By Nintendo Life
Copyright nintendolife
Growing up, I absolutely loved MediEvil on the PS1. The spooky yet lighthearted aesthetic really spoke to me as a child and would ultimately help foster a lifelong passion for the horror genre. So when I saw trailers for Gloomy Eyes from developer Fishing Cactus, I was instantly enamoured with the Tim Burton-esque vibes.
Drawing inspiration from the likes of Little Nightmares and Inside, Gloomy Eyes is a puzzle-adventure that stars two characters, Nena and Gloomy, who begin an unlikely friendship. Described as “self co-op”, the game is strictly single-player, but you’ll be swapping between the two protagonists on the fly in an effort to complete each level, while voiced narration provides context and backstory.
The levels themselves are presented as spooky dioramas, and a quick press of ‘-’ will bring the camera all the way out so you can scope out the entire environment. It reminds me of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, in a way, albeit with much larger levels and puzzles that often require a bit of backtracking. That’s a scary word for many, but each level here takes mere minutes to complete, even if you have to spend time traipsing around in confusion before figuring out what to do. It’s a breezy experience, one that can easily be polished off in just a few short hours.
Puzzles are pretty tactile in the sense that you’re always interacting directly with the environment with objects found on the fly, and you’re often required to complete objectives with one character to open access for the other. Gloomy, for example, can’t stand the light, so you might need to shut off the power as Nena. Alternatively, Gloomy is adept at chucking rocks, so hurling one at certain lights knocks them in the other direction, freeing the way to proceed while blinding an enemy stalking Nena.
Exploring the environment, picking up items, and discovering how they interact with obstacles is satisfying, but it can often be quite tricky to make out certain details within the world. This is usually due to two key reasons: the fixed camera angle makes depth perception difficult, so you’re never quite sure whether certain pathways are actually accessible until you start venturing down them; and the game just looks a bit messy on the Switch.
The art design is wonderful, but the slightly blurry visuals and washed-out colours can look unpleasant at times. It’s a shame, because it looks a real treat on other platforms, so this is yet another instance of Switch players getting an objectively lesser experience. It doesn’t look much better on Switch 2 either, but it’s at least fully functional if you want to try it on Nintendo’s newer system.
Ultimately, disappointing visuals aside, there’s a lot to like here. It definitely falls into the ‘cosy horror’ sub-genre, with spooky yet charming aesthetics, haunting music, and engaging puzzle-solving throughout. With Halloween on the horizon, it could be the perfect little primer for younger gamers.
