I wasn’t familiar with the Finnish children's franchise Moomins from the ‘70s, but it makes sense in context to Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, developed by Hyper Games. The series follows the Moomins, a group of trolls that resemble hippos, and their adventures in the forest. There’s a well established cast of characters from the basic Moominpappa and Moominmamma, to Stinky, a small furry prankster who tempts the people into breaking the law. It’s all reminiscent of the Winnie the Pooh stories with deep rooted lore and relationships.

I didn’t know any of this was going on, so it was a surprise to me that upon booting up Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley all the characters were already familiar with each other. Everybody knows Snufkin as a traveling musical philosopher who visits the Moomintrolls during the warmer seasons. Wow, okay, I guess I’m in it now. After diving deeper into the world, I started to understand more of what we were doing here. We’re playing a children's fairy tale book in video game form, and boy what a treat it was.

The game begins as Snufkin returns to the forest after leaving the Moomins to their hibernation. Upon his return he finds that a forest ranger has come and decided to build the forest into his own scenic tourist hotspot, and has kidnapped Moomintroll in the process. Powered by your love of musical instruments and a sheer will to help, as Snufkin you are tasked with exploring the open forest, helping the beloved cast of characters and saving your best friend Moomintroll. There's magic to this world and I was bewitched by all its wholesome charm.

The main way you interact with the world is through your musical instruments. You start with a harmonica, but later unlock a flute and a drum. The interactions are limited by the instruments and thus act as the way the game gates you off, like a Metroidvania. There are side quests and optional places to explore, but story progress is tied to unlocking the instruments as well as leveling up. Leveling up is just an arbitrary number used in gating quests but you level up by running through bushes and completing side quests. The second way you interact with the world is through stealth sequences, mainly avoiding the forest rangers while making your way through simple mazes. These are relatively painless, with a penalty of being moved a few inches back if caught.

While there’s really only a single path forward through this fairly contained world, I found it still to feel a lot like a baby’s first open world game (and not in a bad way). The accessible map allows for exploration at your own pace and finding new side quests provide mini stories for fan favorite characters. The leveling system is completely innocuous; only used to gate progression, and easily obtainable. It takes the Skyrim model but brings it down to a 5-year-old’s level in difficulty and complexity. The beauty is in its simplicity.

That’s kind of how I feel about this game as a whole: inoffensive and tailor made for a young audience but that’s in no way meant as a knock against Snufkin. I came into this review completely uneducated to the world of Moominkin, but I think I’ve been won over to this part of Finnish folk stories. I saw Snufkin as a new indie cozy game, but instead found something charming, full of warmth and love. I discovered a whole world of stories I will now be reading to my young child. So long Frog and Toad! In a world where the Bluey game was a disappointment, I think this may be my child’s first video game that we play together, if only for more of the Moominkin world to explore. I came for the cozy game, but left with new parental gaming goals.