Nippets review: a charming slice of life hidden object game

Today I’m sharing my thoughts on Nippets, a hidden object game that was released earlier in April. This is a genre I enjoy, directly inspired by “Where’s Waldo/Wally” and old-style magazine puzzles with the fitting addition of interactive elements. Nippets has its own twist being “inspired by the joy of people watching and telling small stories” (according to the game’s description). I really liked this slice of life take, I’ll go more into that in my review. I’m also diving into the gameplay and visuals/sounds aspects.

Thank you Future Friends Games and Blink Industries for providing me a key to play & review the game!

Gameplay & What I liked

Just in like other games in the hidden objects genre, in Nippets you need to look for objects in a large scene where a lot is going on. The different take here is that the hints you receive for each object are actually small stories. And with many of the items you find, you might need to take a few actions to check them off your list. For example, you might need to return an object to whoever was looking for it, or place it somewhere specific.

The game description mentions that it was inspired by observing people, and this concept definitely came through in how I felt while playing. While other hidden object games feature more fantastic situations or backdrops, the ones in Nippets are just about people going about their lives.

The game is very beginner-friendly, as you already unlock the next scene once you complete a percentage of the current one. This means that if you’re missing a couple of items and can’t find them, you can simply start the next stage and return later.

If you’re the type of player that likes poking around and clicking on everything, you will have a fun time with this one, as it often rewards you for doing so by either revealing hidden objects or through in-game achievements.

The game ran flawlessly on both my MacBook and Steam Deck, and because it has Steam cloud sync, I could resume my play sessions in either device without losing my progress.

The cherry on top for me was the little easter eggs referencing other games. I won’t mention which ones not to spoil any surprises, but if you’re an indie gamer you’re bound to recognize a few.

Graphics and sound

Nippets has a 2D, hand-drawn isometric style with an aesthetically pleasing, slightly muted color palette – which I find very important in these kinds of games as I spend so long staring at the same scene.

Each scene showcases a different season of the year. The autumn backdrop was probably my favorite, so cozy!

The background music is a lo-fi track, which I personally found to be a bit generic and forgettable but also pleasant to listen to. The sound effects were good, from sound of birds flying away or people complaining as you click on them. Which I did a lot.

What I didn’t like so much

Something I noticed right away was that the objects I needed to find were shown as outlines of their shapes. I found this made it considerably harder to locate some of the items. This design choice may have been made to encourage the player to read the little story rather than just search by appearance, but I would still have appreciated that design to be more illustrative.

I also wish the game had more stages. At around 3 hours play time, it felt too much on the shorter side. I hope the developer considers releasing DLCs in the future. I loved this world and it would be great to return to it.

My final thoughts & Who I think this game is for

Overall I really liked Nippets and the cozy slice-of-life take on the genre. I think this one is a great option for anyone looking for a hidden object game with a fun twist and little easter eggs, even more so for completionists – there are many achievements to unlock after clearing each stage!

I would recommend against it if you’re expecting more guidance on where to find each object. It won’t hold your hand, though the game itself is not hard. If you want a longer play time, there are probably more suitable options out there too.

Other hidden object games worth checking out

Maybe you completed Nippets and now you’re looking for similar games? Here are some of my recommendations:

• Hidden Folks, I dare say the most popular one in the genre.
• Hidden Through Time, which features a variety of DLCs with different themes for all tastes; you can also create your own scene!
• Lost and Found Co, a hidden object game with a story including cute anime-like cutscenes.

Thank you for reading,

-Luna