Marron’s Day – Nintendo Switch Review

Overview – developed and published by NPCKC in collaboration with RAWRLAB Games, Marron’s Day is a cute game about a little bunny going on an adventure in Game Boy Color style. Play as Marron, who is a young bunny in a small town, who has been given the task of getting people to sign up for the town festival, or it will be cancelled. This adventure is available for the Nintendo Switch and PC, with a link to each version of the game at the bottom of this review.

Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank RAWRLAB Games for providing the copy of Marron’s Day that was used for this piece, via the Keymailer service. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own.

Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review, starting with the story.

Story – Marron is a young bunny, living in a nice and peaceful town. One day, Marron is visited by her friend, who informs her that the town festival has been cancelled, much to Marron’s shock. So she sets out to find the mayor Donut, who tells her that if she can get enough people to sign up, then the festival can go on. So with her goal in mind, Marron sets out to get the town’s people to sign up and save the festival, he favourite day in the town.

Gameplay – Marron’s Day is a retro adventure, with a design that is reminiscent of classic Game Boy Color games. The game plays out in a top down fashion, similar to that of games like Link’s Awakening, with each area split into different colourful zones. The objective for the game is to talk to the town residents, complete requests for them and get them to sign up for the festival. But some of these tasks can be easier said than done.

During the course of the adventure, the player will receive tasks that have multiple steps to complete. These tasks that Marron will receive are tied to the character, like a baker that is after new flavors and a geologist looking for stones. To complete the requests, the player may need to locate items or solve puzzles. These objectives will often require the player to talk to other residents, who will give clues and info about the topic asked.

Then there are the mini game objectives, which need to be cleared for the resident to agree to sign up for the festival. There are minigame challenges that are inspired by classic hand held titles, with a block pushing challenge and fishing system. These give the experience a fun and cosy feel, with little stress when playing. However, there is an additional minigame that a little less cosy, being a bit of a frustration due to the random nature of it.

In this adventure is a competitive game, called Battle Eraser. This is a battle game, where the player must roll erasers to perform various actions. There are four options to put on the eraser at the start, with attack, guard, heal and skip turn. These have points tied to them, with each action using up limited points. After the player sets up their eraser, the battle begins and the objective is to defeat your opponent in battle, rolling erasers to make actions.

A game of Battle Eraser is completely random, with both turns occurring at the same time. These can cause some mild frustration, as a battle can be lost very quickly, with some actions not appearing. There is also the chance for a draw, when both health bars are depleted, but this will count as a loss in battle. All of these elements make Battle Eraser the only negative for this release, as it is entirely reliant on chance to win in battles.

When all objectives are cleared, the festival will start, with activities to end the game. This is a fairly brisk adventure, with an average playtime for the main story at about 90 minutes to 2 hours. But that isn’t a negative for the adventure, as there are some things that can be done when the main story is completed. Marron can talk to the residents after the festival, go back to the festival to do other activities and more, further extending the play time.

The last thing to discuss with this release is the bonus content for the game. As this was originally released for the Game Boy Color, there is a scan of the manual that the physical cartridge comes with. There is also a gallery of images to unlock during the adventure, alongside a music player that will add new songs when they play in game for the first time. Finally we have the achievements, which are six challenges that can be done for some extra completion.

Now with the gameplay covered, it is time to move onto the other aspects of this release, starting with the controls.

Controls – as Marron’s Day is an 8-bit adventure, the only buttons used are A, B, Start (+) and Select (-), which make it easy for everyone to pick up and play. There are additional buttons like a menu button to go back to the front end, alongside the screen resize button. All of the inputs work well and are responsive during play, making for a nice cosy adventure that can be enjoyed on the big screen, or in the hands.

Difficulty – there is little in terms of difficulty for this game, with the only thing that may be considered a challenge being puzzles or Battle Eraser. But with the latter, the challenge comes from the random chance of the rolls during battles. This can be a disruption to the gameplay, but they can be returned to if the player wants to try again later. The game is marketed as a cosy and relaxed adventure, which I believe the game lives up to.

Presentation – from a visual perspective, this game looks like a game you would find in the late 90s, with adorable spritework and an excellent use of color. All of the assets, sprites and environments are crafted with love, with character text that is easy to read on the big and small screen. The music and effects give the game a wonderful nostalgic feel, with bright happy music that elevates the cuteness even further, rounding out the experience.

Final Thoughts – This is an adorable game, which I learned of though an email from RAWRLAB. The main aspect that really caught my attention was the classic style of play, with the top down perspective that were part of the best adventures of that handheld era. I will say that learning of the brief runtime of the main adventure, there was some scepticism. However, this is a wonderful adventure that is worth every second of gameplay.

It may seem like a short experience, but the post-game activities allow for a few more hours of gameplay, extending the adventure further. This is a title that can be enjoyed by everyone, with the chance for parents to share an adventure with kids. So with that being said, I am happy to recommend Marron’s Day to all players, especially those who love cosy games. It does have a few hiccups, but they don’t negatively affect the overall experience.

In the end, I give Marron’s Day a final score of 4.75/5. This is a cosy and fun adventure, which is filled with the nostalgia of the days of the Game Boy Color, with a story that is fun, cute character sprites and lots of fun minigames/puzzles to solve. If you want to check this title out for yourself, a link to each version of the game will be below.

Link to Nintendo Switch version (HERE)

Link to Steam version (HERE)

Link to ITCH version (HERE)