• Price: $19.99 USD
• Developer/Publisher: Happy Juice Games
• Release Date: August 10, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by Happy Juice Games. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

I was already interested in checking out Lost in Play, and when I saw that the developers listed the amazing TV show Gravity Falls as one of their inspirations, I was really excited. (Hilda and Over the Garden Wall were also mentioned.) Just as Dipper and Mabel explored Gravity Falls together, in Lost in Play you’ll play as a brother and sister pair stuck in their imagination. They will need your guidance to solve puzzles and find their way home.

Gal and Toto begin to play together at the start of the game. But all of a sudden, what began as a game of pretend appears to transform into real horrors! 😱 There are 15 episodes in the game, and you advance to the next one by successfully completing the different puzzles and mini games in an episode. Once you’ve beaten all 15 episodes, you can choose to replay whichever episode you want out of order.

The game does not include any dialogue or even text in general. But the development team at Happy Juice Games certainly does their inspirations proud here, as they animated the characters’ expressions and movements in a way that conveys what’s happening without actually using words. They did add some voiced sounds to help set the mood of a scene, as well as gestures like shrugging when you try to use an item on the wrong thing.

I particularly enjoyed the humor in the above scene, where Gal picks up Toto’s laundry and recoils from the smell of it. The animated facial expressions were a lot of fun. It seemed like there were several moments where each of them kind of stare into “the camera” at you like characters from The Office. I really thought that the inspiration from Gravity Falls was evident from the “done” expression on Toto’s face at times, which was certainly reminiscent of Dipper.

And this could just be me, but I got some Alice in Wonderland vibes when Gal came across a tea party with a duck, toad, and gnome. (There was also something that looked a bit like the Cave of Wonders in Disney’s animated Aladdin movie.) I can’t be 100% certain of any references besides those clearly listed as inspirations – like Gravity Falls – but they seemed that way to me.

While I loved the game’s animation, when it came to some of the puzzles and mini games (such as the checkers mini game), I found them a bit frustrating. I had a hard time with that one because it wasn’t like traditional checkers. It involves a single checker on the opposing side, and you are allotted four. The goal of that mini game is to completely surround that checker with yours – there’s no capturing pieces in this version. The catch is that that one piece can move back and forth on the board, while your checkers can only move forward. Given that your opponent’s goal is to get their checker to the opposite side of the board, it could be pretty difficult to succeed in surrounding it due to the movement limitations. I probably took close to two dozen attempts to beat that one.

Although I found some puzzles and mini games somewhat difficult to complete (and wanted a skip option for the checkers), for the most part they were straightforward. I especially loved the pizza puzzle because the pizza delivery guy’s appearance really reminded me of Grunkle Stan in Gravity Falls. The game will give you hints if you’re unsure of what to do next in your current environment or puzzle. All you have to do is press and hold the Y button and the hint will appear. I love it when games help you out like this when you feel puzzled lost in play.

You’ll also get some help from the creatures you meet along the way. The characters that Gal and Toto meet are bizarre yet funny and full of personality despite the lack of dialogue to help with characterization. From the frog trio that helps you pull a sword from a stone to an octopus with finger puppets? Tentacle puppets? puppets to laser spear-wielding reptiles, all of them contribute well to the overall experience.

Besides the more friendly creatures you’ll meet, Gal and Toto will first have to handle what appears to be a bear-deer hybrid monster, a fish set on re-enacting the Pinocchio whale scene, the aforementioned lizards with laser spears, and more. To return home from their imagined environments, the pair will have to travel through perilous places like a forest, the ocean, and a desert.

I found the connections between Gal and Toto’s home in real life and their land of pretend to be pretty clever. The bear-deer hybrid in their imagination corresponds with some sort of monster character that Gal uses as an inspiration for a homemade costume. Gal and Toto’s room has some kind of crane (as in the bird) item hanging from the ceiling, and then they must handle a giant crane in their game of pretend. All of the details in the game – both in the foreground and the background – were certainly impressive!

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Lost in Play is a lovingly crafted point and click game that’s got a lot of charm. While some puzzles could be frustrating, most of them are challenging but not overly so – especially with the considerate hint system. They had some fantastic inspirations but the game stands quite well on its own. I found the characters and their facial expressions extremely entertaining. They may not have utilized direct communication to tell the story, but I was still able to understand it – and the lack of text certainly makes it more accessible! It’s a great game to…lose…yourself in…playing. 😉 8.5/10