This article originally ran in Back Alley Games Issue 12, February 2025

When you think about blogs, reviews, or video essays, you think: “Here’s a person who believes what they have to say is worthy of my time.” Or at least, I did. That attitude could shield you from a lot of boring content, but I’m finding that it’s a flawed way of thinking. 

When an ordinary person writes, they’re not doing it for some group of imaginary beret-wearing yes men. They’re doing it, at least partially, for themselves. Yes, having an audience that trusts you is great. Hell, having an audience at all is cool, but where’s the fun in work the author isn’t personally interested in?

For me to enjoy a review, I need the author to be screaming into the void about their most obscure, nerdy interests. Those tangents, those weird connections a reviewer makes are what take me on unexpected journeys to the depths of Wikipedia at 2 a.m. That’s what makes a review worth my time. 

I don’t care if you mean to entertain me. I want the road you’re leading me down to be one you’re unabashedly interested in. I think writers who chase their own interests may even fill their audience with a little envy. Everyone wants the freedom to go where their nose leads them and to take a detour every once in a while. 

So today I’ll take cues from a little polygonal bird and let my sense of exploration lead. Let’s talk about A Short Hike.

A Short Hike was made by solo developer Adam Robison-Yu in 2019 and is his most successful project to date. Originally, it started as an art project to take Robinson-Yu’s mind off the strenuous development of his still-unreleased RPG. Scenic artwork inspired by his childhood spent in the wilderness eventually morphed into a fully realized game picked up by Humble Bundle and sold on all major platforms.

At first glance, the game seems more cute than beautiful, considering its bouncy music and little Animal Crossing-style characters that talk in cartoony, all lowercase dialogue boxes. However, there’s a sense of depth and progression there that shouldn’t be ignored.

A lot of the mood is owed to the game’s composer, Mike Sparling, who created a soundtrack that is completely adaptive. Instrumentation is added or reduced depending on what the player is doing. 

If you start moving faster, bongos might play. When you reach higher altitudes where the air is thinner, the score becomes thinner too. For a soundtrack that’s only 1 ½ hours long, there’s so many musical techniques put to good use that it could have its own review. Another detour, another day.

On the subject of length, HowLongToBeat.com says A Short Hike’s main story lasts 1 ½ hours, with 100% completion taking about 4 ½ hours, which is kind of an anomaly for wide-distribution games. So, why is this game so tiny?

Well, — and people love it when I do this — let me answer your question with another question. Have you ever been on a vacation and made an unexpected pit stop? 

You’re headed to Florida, you stop at the world’s biggest ball of twine, you end up spilling ice cream on your dad’s New Balance sneakers, and it ends up as the funniest part of the trip. That’s this game. 

When Robinson-Yu created A Short Hike, it was intended as a break from a more “serious” project. When I played A Short Hike, it was sandwiched in between other huge triple-A titles. It was a side trip. A detour. It delivers on that premise with a sense of humor that very few other titles can pull off.

I’ll give you a few small examples before I talk about gameplay. When you first open A Short Hike, you can head straight into the game or, if you have a sense of curiosity like me, you might play around in the options menu. In my opinion, this sidetrack is completely rewarded. 

The first toggle you see is “pixel size.” You get to choose from options like “big and crunchy” and “small and tasty.” Select “info,” and you’ll see a very endearing personal message from the developer. Funky game menus aren’t anything revolutionary, but in this case, it adds to the overall carefree package that is A Short Hike.

Obviously, cute aesthetic and fun menus aren’t enough. To really communicate the feeling of a delightful detour, the gameplay has to be in step with that theme too. A Short Hike is a 3-D platformer, and since the main character is a bird, there’s an emphasis placed on jumping and flying. 

The controls feel pretty good; there’s a nice sense of flow when flying, and the more the game opens up, thve faster you can traverse the world. That’s not the key here, though. The most impressive part of A Short Hike’s gameplay is how it encourages you to explore its world. 

The overarching goal of the game is set early: Reach the summit of the mountain to get cellphone reception. By going on treasure hunts, racing NPCs, fishing, and exploring, you increase your physical ability to reach the summit. As much as I’d like to quote Miley Cyrus here regarding the climb, A Short Hike’s destination is just as important as its journey. 

The dual focus on both the summit and the climb really makes this game feel special when compared to other games of similar lengths like Donut County (Ben Esposito, 2018) or Abzû (Giant Squid, 2016). If your game doesn’t last very long, there’s not a lot of time for changes in tone. 

Not only does the combination of artful score, writing, visuals, and gameplay in A Short Hike convey varying moods and tones, it flows between them so effortlessly that it feels like you’re gliding through the air. It’s a game which doesn’t take itself too seriously; its own developer has even made two zany mods for it: one that utilizes layers of Google Translate and one that adds 99-person multiplayer. 

When I think about it, I’m a person that tends to ruin games for myself by trying to do too much. I can’t count the number of games I’ve given up on just because they would take me too long to 100%. Why I don’t just chill out and play most of the game, I don’t know, but it’s nice to know that there are games like A Short Hike out there that provide a tiny, neatly wrapped side-trip that gives you the comfort and time required to leave no stone unturned.

This article was submitted by a member of the Back Alley Games community and was edited for publication by our staff. Opinions and thoughts expressed within are not those of Back Alley Games.