Here Comes Niko!

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9

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  1. EnigmaXtreme
    Aug 5, 2021
    5
    As someone who was a huge fan of A Hat in Time, I was intrigued when it's developer Gears for Breakfast announced they were attaching themselves to this brand new project. Here Comes Niko, being developed by the appropriately titled FrogVibes, is an endearing yet incredibly confusing little game full of frogs, friendship and flying around on a fishing pole.

    After running away from home,    As someone who was a huge fan of A Hat in Time, I was intrigued when it's developer Gears for Breakfast announced they were attaching themselves to this brand new project. Here Comes Niko, being developed by the appropriately titled FrogVibes, is an endearing yet incredibly confusing little game full of frogs, friendship and flying around on a fishing pole.

    After running away from home, you have applied at Tadpole Inc as a professional friend which entails you going all over the place, helping out strangers, making them smile and getting paid to do it. Right off the bat you will notice that while the game is fully 3D, all characters are 2D sprites similar to how sprites operated in the Build and Doom engine years ago, while incredibly bizarre at first Niko controls very similar to Hat Kid in regards to her jumps and dives. But the way Niko can essentially jump up any structure almost feels broken, like I’ve encountered a cheat code. There are soda cans littered everywhere that you are supposed to use as cannons, but in most cases I just found myself being able to wall jump essentially everywhere.

    The main crux of the game is to advance to the next area by earning coins, when you arrive in the first town you play a game of volleyball, plant some bulbs and help a man who has lost his fishing hook by jumping into the water. After unlocking the next area by the train you then earn more coins by playing volleyball, plant….and here is the crux of my issues with Niko. Despite the adorable and tranquil design of each world you wind up doing the exact same thing but in a different location, half way through the journey I was told that previous worlds had unlocked more activities, but then you just repeat those through the other worlds as well.

    While it’s true that other collectathons have a sense of repetitiveness about them, especially Rareware titles like Banjo Kazooie, they at least give each world a real sense of personality and there isn’t much that separates each world in Niko. While most of the challenges are easy enough, others like rolling around in the giant Hamster Ball to collect Sunflower Seeds (just roll with it) are especially hard to control and I just end up falling into the ocean or rolling into the level’s invisible world and having to reset.

    There isn't much of a story with Here Comes Niko with the only real narrative found during the train rides between levels establishing the hostility that led to Niko running away from home, and honestly finding out the conclusion was really all that kept me going. But to be fair, even if the game can easily be finished in an afternoon it’s hard to ignore just how adorable and light hearted everything is. However in some levels we did find instances where parts of the level would just disappear, hopefully this will get patched out soon enough.

    Here Comes Niko may be a short and sweet little title, but it lacks any real motivation to really keep going as you just keep doing essentially the same thing in different landscapes. If all you wanna do is collect bugs, play with cute animal friends and make very little money than you may as well keep playing Animal Crossing.    … Expand
  2. cydeliveryguy
    Oct 1, 2021
    10
    Awesome sauce even way better then chick fil a sauce or just any kinda sauce in da world tbh just play it not a bad game or sauce idk
  3. PhantomPoke
    Feb 24, 2022
    10
    this game is pretty chill and quite fun no deaths not pain just making friends
  4. Kaspi
    Aug 7, 2021
    8
    Far from style over substance. Beautiful both visually and narritively. Fun characters, funny writing, and good platforming challenges. It's more casual than some would like but, for a swell, easy going, 3D platformer, you could go a lot worse!
  5. Marlsmeker
    Sep 9, 2021
    8
    This game is what it is. Cutesy platformer with a short story and little substance. A fun game if you're a fan of platformers (and furries).
  6. ScoresAreBad
    Jul 12, 2022
    7
    This was a very nice experience to play and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a relaxing 3D collectathon platformer. But that's pretty much all I can say about this game.

    It sadly didn't feel (for a lack of better terms) special. Many missions you go on are quite repetitive and the story ends up being resolved in an unsatisfying way. That being said, I was entertained the whole    This was a very nice experience to play and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a relaxing 3D collectathon platformer. But that's pretty much all I can say about this game.

    It sadly didn't feel (for a lack of better terms) special. Many missions you go on are quite repetitive and the story ends up being resolved in an unsatisfying way.

    That being said, I was entertained the whole way through and had fun!
    Looking forward to what this team produces next!    … Expand
  7. The_Hiero
    Sep 7, 2022
    6
    Look, I like this game. It's absolutely adorable, I love the main character Niko and all the other characters around. The different islands are cool and you can explore them all plenty.
    My problem with the game lies in the time it took me to finish it and the price they set for it.
    It didn't even take me a quarter of a day to finish the game. I explored each island thoroughly and still    Look, I like this game. It's absolutely adorable, I love the main character Niko and all the other characters around. The different islands are cool and you can explore them all plenty.
    My problem with the game lies in the time it took me to finish it and the price they set for it.
    It didn't even take me a quarter of a day to finish the game. I explored each island thoroughly and still only had, like, five hours play time maximum. Which is an absolute shame. I would have loved to see more locations with these characters or something. But nope, none of that.
    And herein lies my problem with the pricing of the game. Yeah, it looks great but there's just so little to do overall and I payed around 20 bucks for that game, which seems like a waste to me now. The game was a experience for sure, but for so little playtime the price really isn't valid.
    Great game, just not really long and a bit overpriced.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
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No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. GameGrin
    Jul 18, 2024
    85
    While definitely on the short side for its price, I had a lot of fun with how simple a game it is, and it’s perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
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  2. Siliconera
    Sep 4, 2021
    70
    Time is this game’s worst enemy. It truly does not fare well for long play periods. Maybe that’s the point, though. Maybe it really is just meant to be the game you pick up for a quick hour of fun before going to bed or getting back to the real world. That may bother some. For me, that realization shifted my perspective and shifted how I truly feel about games such as this. It’s marketed as an easy game for tired people, and it works as that. It doesn’t have complex mechanics or deep world-building. Here Comes Niko provides you with just enough to enjoy the time you have with it and move on.
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  3. Destructoid
    Aug 3, 2021
    60
    But look past the bright soundtrack and lovely character art and you might find that there’s no chocolate center.
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