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Game: Squidlit and Super Squidlit
Release Date: January 14, 2020 and July 30, 2021
Price: $1.99 and $9.99
Rating: Everyone and Everyone 10+
Platform: Switch, PC (only the first game)
Geek to Geek Media was provided with a review copy of these titles.

There's a wonderful charm to the GameBoy, as long as you grew up with it. I love going back to play a bit of Pokemon Blue, Super Mario Land, or Heiankyo Alien (perhaps the first game that made me like the idea of the surreal). I'm not sure that anyone who grew up in the age of smartphones has any interest in games from that era, but I hope they've got at least enough to give Squidlit and Super Squidlit a chance.

Both of these games rock the same, chunky style pixel art, except that the first is tinted green like an original GameBoy game while the sequel uses a GameBoy Color palette. At the core, these are both silly little platformer games where you play as a little Squid creature who jumps across environments while squirting ink at her enemies.

These games are all about being light and fun. I mean, your health is represented by muffins. It doesn't get much cuter than that.

There's also a pretty fun story going on the spans both games. There's a bunch of NPCs that you'll encounter on your journey, and the writing is always goofy and charming. Without getting into spoilers, the plot of the second game is directly dependent on the first, so it's worth playing them both.

Delicious, bite-sized snacks

These are pretty bitesize experiences. The first Squidlit is so short that it doesn't even have any save functionality to it. The second is longer and introduces a second gameplay mode which… well, I don't want to give it away, but when I first saw it I legitimately cracked up laughing at what I was doing.

I doubt that either Squidlit or Super Squidlit will be your favorite games of all time, but if you can still get a smile out of Wario Land, Kirby's Dream Land, or Save Me Mr Tako, I think you'll find these games remarkably charming.