When things are cute I want to squish them. Usually the amount of squishing is directly proportionate to how cute I find the thing. For instance: I started watching Supernatural recently (yeah I know) and season one Sammy is so squishable that if I got my hands on his face it would probably leave bruises.

That all being said. Squids Odyssey is so damn cute that if I ever put my Wii U gamepad down to stop playing, I will squish it until there’s nothing left. Squids Odyssey is so cute and so fun that it was three hours of playing before I even checked the time. It reminds me an awful lot of The Legendary Starfy, except cuter, more complex, and way more addictive.

You start playing as the little squid Steev, who is helping his mentor defeat the infectious ooze and its minions who have returned to the good squids’ land. As the game unfolds you unlock more and more adorable squiddy companions, each with special skills on their own and as part of the team. The battle mechanics are fairly standard–squids are either shooters, troopers, scouts or healers–and the items can upgrade health, stamina, attack, defense, and “special”. If this were all introduced at the very beginning, it would have been overwhelming. However, Squids Odyssey paces things out perfectly, which makes the learning curve just steep enough to marathon through level after level.

(Sidebar: I just picked up the game again to check something, and got distracted for 40 minutes easy. If nothing else about this review convinces you to download Squids Odyssey, keep in mind how long it’s taking me to write this simply by virtue of how distracting the game has become.)

Each level introduces more obstacles, different baddies, or a more complicated map. Wave currents, sea urchins, and the edges of coral reefs all pose delightfully varied challenges. You collect pearls by defeating enemies and cracking open treasure chests and clam shells, among other little surprises. The pearls are then used to buy items, upgrade squids, and purchase unlocked gear.

Squids Odyssey is a best case scenario downloadable game. It’s fully-functional. It’s fully customizable, from the members of your party to the silly hats they wear. No two levels play the same, and with so much to customize the levels have tons of replay value. In fact, I went back and played a couple levels with different party members just to see if the options make a difference; and when they did I went back to the very beginning and aimed to 100% each world. I’m still working on it.

The ONLY complaint I have is that the storyline was not greatly important to the gameplay. There’s a little bit of story-based reasoning behind the shakeup of the party members. Each new party member gives us a little of their backstory, but it all sort of blends together after a while. It doesn’t stall my enjoyment of this near perfect surprise of a game, but a little more story would have plumped that enjoyment up to eleven.

I would say more, but there are Squids that need my attention.

Squids Odyssey can be downloaded in the eShop, and I recommend you make some time for cute little squid squishing.

Jen Schiller
Jen@sub-cultured.com
twitter.com/jenisaur