This game was originally covered as part of our Nindie Round Up series that sought to give coverage to a wider breadth of Switch eShop games beyond our standard reviews. In an effort to make our impressions easier to find, we're presenting the original text below in our mini-review format.

This interactive story game is based on the 1964 children’s book of the same name by Colin Thiele. It retells the key events of the novel with a beautiful visual style but short run time. Storm Boy is certainly something different and manages to generate a strong emotional response and ‘the feels’ with its compelling story of boy and pelican.

The gameplay is largely a 2D race to the right of the screen, chronicling the main story beats in text over the action. There are minigames to be found, including a ball-throwing game, a flight section, and the opportunity to take a raft out and go diving. None of these present much of a challenge and can actually all be skipped, but they’re still charming. Their aim is clearly to immerse you further into this world, to which they succeed. This is complemented by a gorgeous hand-drawn art style that evokes classic children’s illustrations, making the beach setting all the more appealing, even during the titular storms.

There are, however, some graphical issues, with textures not always rendering properly. In addition, though the minigames are charming, their controls are stiff and unintuitive. Though the story told is gorgeous, most of the gameplay elements are unfortunately lacking.

Overall, Storm Boy is a compelling emotional tale that has a phenomenal soundtrack that will get even the stoniest-hearted player tearing up. It’s gorgeously presented and is a wonderful piece of interactive art, but its length severely diminishes its value. If you rush through, you can finish the game within ten minutes. However, writing it off entirely would be doing a disservice to its brilliant atmosphere and immersive plot. If you’re a fan of story-driven experiences and gorgeous soundtracks, then you may wish to check it out.