Sky: Children of the Light

The free-to-play open-ended nature of Sky might be slow-paced, especially if you’re not planning to empty your pocketbook, but the gentle pleasantness of exploring visually engaging worlds wordlessly with a new online friend or two is soothing and relaxing. If you even have a passing interest or fondness for Journey, checking out Sky on Switch is absolutely something you should do. It’s delightful.

Sky: Children of the Light also arrives on Nintendo Switch: it's free, and slightly better than the smartphone versions.

Sky: Children of light is a fantastic looking adventure, where you can fly and explore a magical world. Communication happens over emotes and you can find friends by taking their hands. It's a free to play game with the options to purchase style items for real money.

As a whole Sky: Children of the Light is an extremely wonderful experience. Without having to pour any money into it, it is a very enjoyable game and is cleverly executed by thatgamecompany. It's charming in all the right ways and there are few faults on it. If you're searching for a new open world adventure for you and your friends to go on, then I highly recommend Sky: Children of the Light.

A beautiful game full of grace and spirit – a worthy successor to Journey. But micro-transactions, technical issues and parts of the game structure thwart the experience.

Sky: Children of the Light is an incredible and sweet authorial journey with a simple but functional gameplay, a dreamlike and delicate atmosphere. An exciting journey.

Two years later, some dark clouds are still shrouding Sky : Children of the Light, from technological or ergonomic points of view. But these prove superficial ways to consider ThatGameCompany's work, since it affirms a unique experience towards universality, expressed through a poetic style, an empathic approach and above all shared emotions, even more powerful thanks to cross-play. This philosophy echoes with the harmoniously introduced story of The Little Prince, that highlights such freedom of investment or interpretation.

The Nintendo Switch version of Sky Children of the Light manages to convincingly replicate what has seen in the last two years on iOS and Android systems.

Just as recommendable as on mobile, the Switch version of Sky: Children of the Light gains in magic once the console is placed in the dock. You can enjoy the excellent art direction on the big screen and appreciate the joystick controls. The expanses of clouds as far as the eye can see impress and make you want to get lost in them. This free-to-play has not lost its luster and deserves your full attention, especially if, like us, you loved Journey.

We love free stuff, and Sky: Children of the Light is perhaps the best experience you can get for free on the Switch to date. The visuals are simply stunning, whether you’re playing in handheld mode or on the big screen, and the variety of the game’s different worlds provides more than enough incentive to explore. The social aspect is solid, and the game’s unique ability to foster bonds with complete strangers is frankly a marvel. The only real downside is that the gameplay is so simplistic in nature, so we’re not certain it will keep players around for long to experience any future updates. If it does grab your attention, however, then a magical experience awaits.

Thatgamecompany stole our hearts with Journey, and Sky looks like a natural evolution of that concept, as it draws from the ideas, mechanics, setting, character movement and art direction of its predecessor. The problem is, you can only surprise people once with a specific trick. Even if it’s focused slightly different and puts greater emphasis on online features, this “new Journey” will never make the same impression as the original, fresh experience. [09/2021, p.61]