Review: Ittle Dew

Professional adventurer Ittle Dew and her sarcastic sidekick Tippsie have shipwrecked onto a mysterious island filled with loot and strange inhabitants. Will they be able to find a way to escape the island, or will they be destined to be marooned here forever…

A fun filled, exciting, and humorous adventure awaits in Ittle Dew. Explore the island, solve devious puzzles, and interact with this interesting cast of characters.

30 Second Review

+ Fun Zelda-like experience

+ Cute stylized animations

+ Puzzles are clever

– Off TV mode can be enabled, but a better experience will be had using the TV

– D-pad is more responsive than the analog stick

Notable Features

• Lots of secrets and shortcuts to explore
• Combine your tools in ingenious ways
• Beautiful hand-drawn HD wobble graphics
• Speedrunners welcome

Mischief Managed

Ittle Dew is a game that has a quirky charm about it mixed in with a lot of heart. While it has been inspired by the Zelda series and has several troupes from that genre in it, it is actually more puzzle intensive than most Zelda-inspired games. After being shipwrecked on an island, you’ll need to acquire a new raft in order to leave. You’re in luck, because there is a shopkeeper nearby that will happily make a raft. However, he doesn’t want money. Instead he wants an artifact that is located in the island’s castle. Time to get ready to embark on this adventure…

Ittle Dew is an isometric adventure game that will take you between 3 to 5 hours to complete. The animations and stylized graphics are done well and gives the game a rather cute appearance. This is easily a game which potentially may appeal to anyone. Game mechanics and puzzle elements are great. Even though the game only has three items, you will utilize these items to create unique combinations in order to solve each puzzle. Puzzles are not limited to a one way to solve solution. They may be solved in multiple ways. With every additional play through you can challenge yourself to solve each puzzle in new ways.

I really appreciate Ittle Dew for the level of difficulty and replayability that the game provides. The younger gamers are likely to have a lot of fun with it. However, for the hardcore crowd, there are secrets and shortcuts that will satisfy even the most intense gamer.

The speedrunning community is very active and competitive with Ittle Dew. If you’re curious about being a speedrunner but have been hesitant to get involved, this title can easily ease you into this competitive side of gaming. If you’re looking for the clock timer, you’ll find it in the options menu. Be sure to turn it on if you plan on participating in this aspect of the game.

Light My Fire

I played Ittle Dew using both the D-pad and the analog stick. The D-pad was much more responsive, and I was able to do everything I intended. When using the analog stick, sometimes I would completely walk past my target, and then I would have to turn back around and try again. Ultimately I gave up on the analog stick and used only the D-pad.

Ittle Dew has a great puzzle mechanic, and you will have to move blocks and objects around in order to solve these puzzles, which is why the controls are so important.

While Ittle Dew can be played using the off TV function on the Wii U GamePad, I don’t recommend it. When you’re playing on the TV, you have a great mini map on the GamePad screen. If you choose to hit the select key and enable off TV mode, then the map goes to the TV and the gameplay arrives on the screen. There actually is no button to pull the map up manually. If you’re playing in off TV mode you’ll have to hit the select key and switch back and forth between TV and off TV in order to look at the map.

At present, off TV mode feels like a missed opportunity in some regards. In order to have the best experience possible, you’ll not want to enable this feature.

Occasionally while playing Ittle Dew I ran into black loading screens. Turning the TV mode function on and off with the select key solved this issue every time. Even though it seldom happened, I did want to include the solution to fixing this issue within the review in case anyone encounters this.

Ittle Dew is rated E for everyone ages 10+ for fantasy violence, comic mischief, and the use of alcohol and tobacco. You’ll want to keep these factors in mind before purchasing. I personally think this is a game that everyone of all ages will enjoy for its humorous qualities.

The Verdict Has Arrived

Ittle Dew is available on the Nintendo eShop for $9.99. If you are a longtime fan of Zelda games, then you’ll greatly enjoy and appreciate this modern homage to the series. If somehow you’ve avoided the Zelda games over the years, then Ittle Dew is a wonderful game to introduce you to this genre.

Ittle Dew is available on multiple platforms, tablets, and Steam. I personally own it for both Steam and the Wii U. I find myself playing it more on the Wii U than on Steam. When I fire my PC up for gaming, I tend to want to play something much more graphically intensive. I can easily see how it would make a great tablet travel game. Buy it for the platform that best suits your gaming preferences.