Ooblets, a life simulation and creature collection adventure game from developers Glumberland, is an outstandingly adorable game. Players customize their own character and move to the run-down little town of Badgetown. There, you’ll learn all about the cute little creatures called ooblets. These fun and whimsical little creatures come in all shapes and colors, and can even help you on your farm where you’ll grow crops as well as new ooblets! Join an Ooblet Club, have dance battles with other trainers and their ooblets, and complete quests to liven up the town. Also decorate your home, buy new clothes to match your style, open your very own shop, and much more.

The Ooblets and Dance Battles

If you’re familiar with Pokemon, then you’ll be familiar with the idea behind collecting Ooblets in all their shapes and colors. Some are rarer than others, of course, and each town and biome you visit will feature their very own types of ooblets. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock more ooblets for each area, too. 

What really tickles me is the use of trainer battles, but instead of trying to hurt and knock out the other team, you compete in a dance battle. Dance battles involve a deck of cards that have certain abilities on them. The contents of your deck (and your opponent’s) depends on the ooblets you’ve chosen for your team. Each ooblet type has certain abilities, and as they level up, you’ll unlock new abilities and cards. For example, dumbirbs add in a card that lets you add “trepidation” to the opponent’s deck, which is adding useless cards to their deck so they’ll draw blank cards. That makes them unable to gain points, which are needed to win. The first person to the point total (which depends on the size of the group you are battling), wins. 

Ultimately, it’s a simple little change to the usual creature collection battle style, but it’s wildly successful for a cozy game, in my opinion. The music used is fun and upbeat without being annoying. The dancing animations are adorable. The use of cards to choose moves is creative, too. Plus, when you win, kind words and congratulations are given to the opponent. It’s heartwarming. 

Aside from the battles, your little ooblet friends are useful on the farm! Build them small Oob Coops, assign them specific jobs, and they’ll help with the farm chores. They can water crops, pick crops, battle weeds, break up rocks, and harvest logs so you can focus on dance battles and quests. Don’t forget to dress them up in the cute ooblet accessories you’ll collect from completing quests. Make them even more adorable than they already are.

The Overall Game

Glumberland really nailed it with this game. Aside from the adorable creatures and fun dance battles, the humor is just spot on. Overall, the game is goofy. There’s a wide cast of characters with wildly varying personalities and dialogues. Some are scathing, some sweet, and some just don’t make sense, adding to the silliness of their image. Items have weird names (like the sprinklehot or the dribbly can). People’s names aren’t standard, every-day things either. You’ll meet people like Churles who runs the clothing store, and Rugnolia who’s the local scientist (think Professor Oak). Whatever I’m doing in the game, it usually succeeds in making me giggle at least once here and there at its cute absurdity.

Ooblets uses a beautifully vibrant color scheme without being painfully bright. Plus, each area features its very own look and introduces a new unique biome into the mix, allowing for some fun exploration. Add in a variety of quests, home renovations, farming, and ooblet dance battles, there’s a lot to do and love in this game.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know if I adequately captured the silliness and beauty of Ooblets, but perhaps it’s better to just experience it first-hand. I cannot recommend this game enough. It is adorable. It’s funny. It’s cozy and relaxing, too. Ooblets is a great addition to the farming sim genre, and should be added to your list of games to play

Ultimately, I give it: 

Ooblets is available on the Epic Games store, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox. There are plans for a Steam release at some point, too.

Check out Monster Harvest or Palworld for more creature collection fun.