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Games

Explore an N64-Style Wonderland in This Colorful Game

‘Gone Wandering’ is a colorful, pretty reminder of the Mario 64 era.
All images courtesy of We Don't Make Games

With a pinch of Wind Waker and a whole lot of N64-era 3D platformer aesthetics, Gone Wandering is a very cute and pretty reminder of a bygone time. A time when exploring a bright 3D space and collecting things (in this case, butterflies) was all you needed. A time I sorely miss.

In the game, you play a young lass—well, two young lasses—in rad hats who are out exploring in their tiny motorboat. You float around a number of islands, looking for batches of butterflies to snatch. Some islands are as cheerful as anything in Banjo-Kazooie, while others have a darker, more foreboding air about them—they seem to beckon to you, a call to adventure of the Zelda sort, with swords and shields and monsters.

Gone Wandering is more like a Sunday drive (Sunday boat ride) in that kind of place, a pleasant, chill adventure that just happens to evoke some of the most fun I've ever had in gaming.

You can download the game for free—or name your own price—on its itch.io page. Bonus! The team recorded a postmortem podcast about the making of the game here.