"Adorable Adventures" tested: sweet, atmospheric and a little too well-behaved

Kim Muntinga

8-5-2026

Translation: machine translated

Pictures: Kim Muntinga

In "Adorable Adventures", I follow my nose through a beautiful natural setting as baby wild boar Boris. It's charming, atmospheric and often surprisingly warm-hearted, but the central idea wears thin faster than I'd like.

I'm standing in the damp grass with my legs that are far too short. In front of me, luminous scent particles dance through the air, a bush rustles somewhere and my little wild boar's trunk works as if my whole life depended on it. Which is true in a way. I am Boris, a newcomer, separated from my family and my best compass is my nose.

«Adorable Adventures» didn't win me over with big words in those first few minutes, but with a simple idea: I don't see the world like a human, but like a small animal that has to rely on instincts. Every smell becomes a scent, every rustle a promise, every step into the tall grass a small test of courage. This is charming, sometimes almost touching, but also risky. Because as cute as Boris is, a game cannot rely on big eyes and clumsy animations alone. At some point, the first «Oh, how cute» has to become a real adventure.

From a big wilderness dream to a small animal adventure

Wild Sheep Studio is behind «Adorable Adventures», a name that evokes a completely different memory for some. The French team once worked on «WiLD», an ambitious open-world project for the Playstation 4 that was rumoured for years and never released. Now the studio is returning with a much smaller game: a cosy adventure about instinct, orientation and family.

It is precisely this change of scale that arouses curiosity. The big wilderness fantasy becomes an intimate animal story. At the same time, I was sceptical: cuteness, scent trails and a touching premise quickly create sympathy, but don't automatically carry an entire game. If a game remains deliberately small, its few ideas have to work all the better.

The nose as the most important button

A lot of the game depends on Boris' sense of smell. At the touch of a button, scent trails become visible that run like glowing threads through grass, forest and caves. This is more than just a nice effect because it immediately suits the character: Boris doesn't orientate himself like a human. He reads the world with his nose.

This works best when the game doesn't just lead me, but makes me curious. When a trail intersects with a stronger track, winds around rocks or takes me briefly off the obvious path, the sniffing actually feels like searching. But as soon as I'm just following a trail of particles, the idea loses some of its magic.

Boris himself also thrives on this feeling. He scurries through the grass, slides down small slopes and squeezes through bushes as if every metre were a little adventure. This is charming as long as the clumsiness seems intentional. With mouse and keyboard in particular, however, I often found the camera control to be an enemy: too choppy, too unsteady, too unintuitive for a game that actually wants to flow. With a controller, «Adorable Adventures» feels much smoother. Suddenly, movement, camera and Boris' clumsy rhythm fit together better.

It gets more interesting when the trails lead to small situations: a sibling that is not immediately accessible, a diversion through the terrain, a place where I first have to find out how Boris is getting on.

When I find my brother Gary in a crevice, it's not a simple click event. I first have to gain his trust, solve a little puzzle about his favourite berries and then lead him safely back to base camp. These are not difficult tasks, rather gentle hurdles. But they give the walk structure and prevent me from just running from scent particle to scent particle.

Despite this, I have to say: the system never quite realises its full potential. The further the game progresses, the more predictable the scent trails become.

Between idyll and scorch marks

Luckily, the world carries some of what the mechanics sometimes leave behind. «Adorable Adventures» takes its inspiration from the French Cévennes National Park and turns it into an astonishingly beautiful, harmonious landscape: light-coloured limestone cliffs, dense forests, narrow streams, soft light and paths that naturally wind their way through the surroundings.

This nature is not just a feel-good backdrop. The forest fire that separated Boris from his family lies like a shadow over the journey. It doesn't make the play gloomy, but it does give it a melancholy undertone. Amidst all the warm colours and peaceful sounds, there is always a reminder of why Boris is travelling alone in the first place.

I feel the atmosphere most strongly in the sound. Wind, insects, distant chirping and the rustling under Boris' hooves intertwine pleasantly. The music remains restrained and leaves space for nature. There are moments when I simply let this have an effect on me and enjoy it.

Max (short for Maxime), the park ranger, gives this animal story a human frame. His English voiceover commentary (voiced by Joshua Manning) responds to Boris' discoveries and often sounds like careful observations from a nature journal: warm, attentive, never mocking. It works well when he accompanies rather than explains. Then his voice complements Boris' silent perspective without drowning it out.

Sometimes, however, the narrative slips too much into documentary and comments on things that I would have preferred to discover for myself. This isn't permanently distracting, but it shows how careful a game that relies so heavily on instinct and atmosphere has to be.

A short trip, not a long march

After a good three to four hours, Boris' main journey was over for me. That's short, but not automatically a problem for this game. In fact, I had the feeling that «Adorable Adventures» works best within this compact framework. The central idea probably wouldn't have lasted any longer. The snooping wears off too soon for that, and the little puzzles remain too cautious.

I liked the fact that the search for Boris' siblings is not just a simple checklist. The game tries to give each of them at least a little characterisation: the shy sister who needs to be gently enticed first; the cheeky brother who needs a sporting challenge. These are not in-depth character studies, but small portraits. And they are enough to ensure that the encounters don't feel interchangeable.

I tended to take the side activities with me when they were just on my way. Photo tasks, collectible odours, Maxime's journal, park maintenance or time races didn't pull me hard enough to specifically work through everything. They work well when they sharpen my focus on my surroundings: a photo here, a smell there, a brief moment in which I become more aware of a place.

If you want to see everything, it takes about six hours. For twenty euros, that's not much, but even a short book that you won't forget justifies its price. With «Adorable Adventures», however, I feel the tight scope more clearly because the central idea wears thin early on.

«Adorable Adventures» was provided to me by Wild Sheep Studio for the PC. The game has been available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S since 30 April.

Kim Muntinga

Editor

Kim.Muntinga@galaxus.de

My interests are varied, I just like to enjoy life. Always on the lookout for news about darts, gaming, films and series.

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