Here Comes Niko! Review

Niko moves to a new home and is hired by a frog to become a professional friend. Okay, so “hired” is a bit strong, as they have to pass a probationary period and job interview, but doesn’t Here Comes Niko! have a lovely concept? Niko has to board a train to head for Tadpole Inc.’s head office which is several stops away across a series of islands. Along the way they have to disembark at each stop to earn coins by doing things that only the protagonist of a 3D platformer can do, and pay to clear obstacles from the train tracks.

You might be wondering what it means to be a friend. Well, it doesn’t matter what others think or what the dictionary definition might be, because in this game it means doing odd jobs in return for coins. Not a healthy friendship relationship, but this is a friendship business dang it! There is an assortment of tasks, from getting inside a big hamster ball and locating the owner’s sunflower seeds to playing volleyball. Although you may encounter the same tasks from the same characters on multiple islands, they always vary in some way to keep them interesting.

Some of the tasks involve a bit more of a challenge than others, so while this is a perfectly accessible and cosy game, it’s going to take younger players a bit more effort to complete it to 100%. For example, one job involves carrying a turtle to their husband without jumping more than three times, while another asks you to reach the top of a hill while making sure your feet never touch the ground.

As you’ll be jumping and diving around each island, you’ll be glad to hear that the controls in Here Comes Niko! are super easy to get to grips with. The fiddliest thing is wall jumping, and that’s both rarely used and also not that fiddly at all. Each island has plenty of places to explore and hidden things to discover, the most charming of which are the Handsome Frogs who have some great dialogue.

In fact, the dialogue for every character is great, and the game is very funny at times. And yet it can also be heartfelt as you come to learn why Niko just moved. Actually, thinking back on it there are a lot of different genres on show throughout the game, because it’s a bit of a horror show what someone does with cicadas…

Being set on a series of islands, everything is bright and vibrant (except the hot springs because it’s night time there). Every location is distinct, though being islands there’s some overlap here or there, for example areas you’ll have to swim out to to access. All of the character designs are distinct and stood out well even on the smaller screen of the ROG Ally (which this was perfectly playable on), though the only character you’ll be getting invested in is Niko themself.

The rest of the characters can seem one-note, and even though Niko has a virtual pet, you’ll quickly grow annoyed with it and stop paying it any attention. It pops up during loading screens and whenever you sit Niko down somewhere, so it isn't really an important feature, but I couldn’t make the thing happy for more than five minutes… But back to Niko, who gets backstory during each new train journey and one of the collectables are messages in bottles that appear to be written by them, so while the narrative isn’t in your face, it’s definitely there.

To reach the end of Here Comes Niko! took me about four hours, but that still left me with a bunch of tasks still remaining. I did some of them along the way, but as you progress, things on previous islands will unlock and you’ll have to head back to do those. If you manage to complete all 72 tasks you’ll be rewarded with the coveted Employee of the Month (and dispose the smarmy frog who thinks they’ll get it), so there’s something to strive for. And, of course, you might want to take your time with the whole thing as it is a cosy game that’s fun to play for half an hour or two full hours, you do you.

Here Comes Niko! is a fun, short, cosy 3D platformer. That’s really all there is to it, and honestly it doesn’t need to be more than that. No boss fights, no time trials, no RPG elements, and zero crafting. I’m actually disappointed that I didn’t play this sooner.