Ooblets

Ooblets is a fantastic farming simulation game that also combines cute-creature-collection and a deck-building/card battling system all in one handy-dandy game. It looks, sounds, and runs well on the Switch, and is entirely worth your money.

Although some of the unique elements like the Ooblet collecting and the dance battles may be surface level approaches compared to other games in this genre, I see a great amount of promise in Ooblets’ ability to provide a relaxing yet satisfying experience for players who have enjoyed farming, raising cute creatures, and occasionally deckbuilding. Your life may have been a giant toot before now, but Ooblets will definitely charm you to Elswair and back. Give Ooblets a chance — it’s absolutely worth it!

This, then, is Ooblets: a tremendously well-made game that mashes together disparate wholesome game genres to create something unique and clever, with a tremendously memorable art style and sense of humor. [Issue #62 – November/December 2022, p. 22]

Ooblets is a delightful and silly farming game with plenty to keep you busy, but the Switch performance might some off.

Ooblets is a must-play for life-simulation fans and is a great gateway game for folks who enjoy a good deck builder and have wanted to dabble in the life-simulation genre thanks to the dance battle system.

It’s still a bit rough around the edges, but Ooblets is a quirky combination of monster collecting RPG and farming sim. The humor and characters are incredibly charming, and the core gameplay loop is a ton of fun. For every annoying dungeon, there’s some cute Ooblets to battle and collect just around the corner. What Ooblets lacks in polish, it makes up for in charm.

In its current state, Ooblets is an easy recommendation at its discounted launch price if you enjoy life and farming simulation games despite the performance issues. While it isn’t perfect even when played on Xbox Series X going by the bit I played there to compare, Ooblets does a great job of blending creature collecting and life simulation elements together with a ton of its own charm. I hope potential future updates can address the performance issues on Switch because Ooblets feels like a fantastic fit for the Switch’s library, and I look forward to seeing how it evolves over time.

A game that is, in so many ways, immediately familiar, yet also feels fresh and original. The mash-up of farm life sim and creature collecting is a fun one in its own right, but in Ooblets, it’s also the foundation for something else: a rather eccentric take on cottagecore whimsy and wholesome vibes, twee and irreverent in equal measure. That won’t be for everyone, but if you can appreciate the steps its dancing, this is a delightful game.

Ooblets takes elements of Stardew Valley, the Animal Crossing series and the Pokémon franchise, and stirs them together for a first-rate life sim adventure with hours of playability that feels perfect for the Switch. It’s not flawless, but the good easily outweighs the bad. If you’re looking for a new chill-out game, Ooblets has got you covered.

My time with Ooblets started off rocky, and while it did take a while for me to get into the groove of things and finally settle into the comfy farm life that I so desperately crave from these games, I’m glad I stuck with it. And just like Stardew Valley, Ooblets 1.0 definitely has the potential to keep growing and expanding beyond its current scope. It’s a fantastic farming sim as is, but the real excitement comes from what it could eventually become in the future.

A new contender for the best wholesome game on Switch, Ooblets matches smart farming mechanics with satisfying creature collecting, and the vegetable critters known as the Ooblets are the star of the show. Dance battles are thrilling, and there are endless amounts of ways to customise and improve every aspect of the game but don’t expect to get anywhere quickly, as with so many different gameplay elements it’s easy to get buried under the workload.