Amanda The Adventurer Review

Don’t be fooled by Amanda The Adventurer’s cute aesthetics. This isn’t your average kids’ game, similar to My Friend Peppa Pig. Instead, this follows a similar path to games such as the Poppy Playtime or the Garten Of Banban titles. It seems to be the rage amongst the younger generation of children these days, a gentle introduction to mild horror.

Most of them derive from adaptations of cartoons into the video game scene, but here, it appears to be the other way around, with the adventure stemming from a cartoon in-game. It was enough to give me the chills with its eerie, creepy atmosphere but it also becomes compelling as you strive to solve the puzzles along the way and see what the outcomes of the experience may be.

Finally On Xbox!

Amanda The Adventurer made its debut on Steam back in April 2023 and has recently been ported to the Xbox family of consoles for the first time. You play as Riley who has just inherited a house from her Aunt Kate. After reading a note warning you about a VHS tape in the loft and its contents you then embark on the journey as you pop it into the VHS player. Although you are warned there is no going back after this, this is where the intrigue carries you throughout what you’ll encounter next. Upon playing the VHS you’re treated to your first insight of Amanda the Adventurer, a cartoon that takes inspiration from Dora the Explorer.

Creepy Vibes

I found the cartoons to be a little unsettling and so cleverly done. Amanda seems to get pissed off and upset if you get a question wrong and Wooly looks like he’s been treading on eggshells with Amanda and is expecting a clout or something. Viewing tapes often triggers some occurrences throughout your attic and you’ll carry out actions based upon what you’ve seen. With the game being quite short I don’t want to spoil anything in this review and it’s important to see it for yourself. Solving the puzzles can be a challenge and often you’ll watch tapes more than once to try and gain clues on what to do next.

It could be as simple as spotting something within the cartoon itself, something Amanda or Wooly has said or even responses to questions rightly or wrongly. The resulting outcome across the playthrough is the route to five different endings. Unfortunately, I only managed to see three I believe, and it is tricky to try and find them all. You’re looking at approximately an hour for each run through the game there or thereabouts and this all depends on your brainwork and pacing obviously. Replayability is there if you want to see all the endings possible, but even so you’re looking at no more than a few short stints of gameplay or one long session.

Visuals & Audio

By far the strongest area of the game is the cartoon animations between Amanda and her sheep friend Wooly. I enjoyed the way they presented this as if you were viewing it on a CRT TV screen from the early 90’s, they nailed the feel of this here. The voice acting is equally superb as it captures the aura of those old but cheesy children’s programs but you can sense a hint of sarcasm as you watch carefully. Careful being the world as you’ll find clues buried between the dialogue and sound that may help you solve puzzles within your dark and dingy attic.

Final Thoughts

Amanda The Adventurer presents a unique challenge offering some dark, creepy yet chuckle-worthy moments throughout its playthrough. It isn’t a massive game by any means and the gameplay loop is pretty short, but there are multiple endings if you want to try and find them out for yourself. It is a very well-designed puzzler ultimately with cleverly plotted and subtle hints through the brilliantly animated and petrifying cartoon. The price-point weighs in at a reasonable £7.49 which doesn’t break the bank for a couple of casual hours of fun. Will you brave it in the dark though like I did? If you’re impressed with this title then you’ll be pleased to hear the sequel has dropped onto Steam recently, so I’d imagine a console release is imminent for AtA2.