From the team at Afil Games, HoneyLand is an adventure puzzle game that has you lead a bear through several environments that provide the player with new challenging puzzles in each level. Getting the Bear to the jar of honey has never been so sweet and challenging at the same time.

Getting Mr.Fluff to the Honey

Once HoneyLand loads, there is only one thing you need to know, get Mr. Fluff (The bear) to his honey. A shockingly small amount of story content was present to engage a player, despite it being a simple task to involve them in the game. All you know is that the bear wants the honey, however, that information is only explained in the game’s description.

While the lack of story can discourage a player, Honeyland provides the player with challenging puzzles in the 30 levels to travel through that use 3 different environments adding a new experience every 10 levels.  

As for the art style, the cover art compared to the art-style in the game is similar enough to tell that it is from the same game. However, opening up Honeyland, it can be a little disappointing to see the graphics. The cover art provided a very interesting and adorable aesthetic that was unique. It has the cartoon art style that when used in the actual game-play could have made this a very stylized game. While there weren’t any glitches or issues with the art-style use in the actual gameplay, it did leave me hoping for more creativity in the background and landscape. 

The simple landscape that the bear mainly walks on helps add a unique environment to play in. The background was just a simple blue sky backdrop. Adding elements popping out of the corners of the background that matched the environment would have made it feel less empty. 

The Way of Making Him Move

In HoneyLand, the controls are pretty simple, adding to the art style and soundtrack, making it a very calming and enjoyable playthrough while solving the puzzle the game gives you. The gameplay consists of simple controls with a limited amount of spaces and arrows to use for each level. Using your directional buttons, you can select the different arrows to help lead the bear to the jar of honey. Changing the steps that you choose for each level allows you to complete the level in several ways. 

Before choosing an arrow, the game shows a blue ghost-like bear to highlight the path your bear could go when selecting that option, this makes planning and understanding the puzzle much easier. There will be times in some of the levels where selecting an arrow that turns the bear around without moving a step will help as it changes the direction that you could go with the available arrows. 

Adding New Elements 

HoneyLand adds in the use of new elements and controls to change and add to each level. The player gets a chance to understand the main concept of the controls through the first 10 levels of the game. In the next set of 10 levels, you are rewarded with new elements to add to the gameplay once you have gotten used to the controls.

For levels 11 – 20, you are introduced to a new type of arrow that lets the bear jump over ledges and obstacles that get in the way of reaching the jar of honey. After getting to levels 21 – 30, you get the addition of gathering extra cards throughout the level to use. For those levels, you will have a new challenge of planning out which cards to use in order to get the one you will need to complete the level. 

Another added feature to a puzzle game like HoneyLand is the level restart button. If you mess up, the x button on the switch gives you a chance to restart the level from the beginning without any penalties. You don’t find any hints, so you must keep testing different patterns to solve the puzzle. Being able to easily give the player a chance to restart the level without any negative marks on their gameplay eliminates any stress and lets the player focus on simply solving the puzzle. 

Final Thoughts

After playing HoneyLand, I would say that it offers an engaging puzzle experience with its simple controls and challenging levels, though it falls short in storytelling and artistic creativity. Despite its shortfalls, this game is a very unique weekend gaming experience for any age.

HoneyLand is available on Mircosoft store, Nintendo EShop, Xbox and PS store for $4.99. NeverMore Niche received a free review key generously provided by Afil Games.