Little Nightmares

Little Nightmares is a puzzle-platformer horror adventure game developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Stadia. The game received positive reviews upon release with critics praising the atmosphere, graphics, and sound. Criticism was aimed at the game's checkpoint system.

Little Nightmares
Developer(s)Tarsier Studios
Engine Software (Switch)
Publisher(s)Bandai Namco Entertainment
Producer(s)Henrik Larsson
Oscar Wemmert
Emma Mellander
Designer(s)Dennis Talajic
Dave Mervik
Hilda Liden
Asger Kristiansen
Matthew Compher
Andreas Palmgren
Michael Thulin
Programmer(s)Niklas Hansson
Mattias Ottvall
Richard Meredith
Artist(s)Per Bergman
Marcus Ottvall
Gustaf Heinerwall
Christer Johansson
Sebastian Bastian
Patrik Johansson
Composer(s)Tobias Lilja
EngineUnreal Engine 4
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Nintendo Switch
Stadia
Release
  • Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
  • 28 April 2017[1]
  • Nintendo Switch
  • 18 May 2018
  • Stadia
  • 1 June 2020[2]
Genre(s)Puzzle-platformer, survival horror
Mode(s)Single-player

A sequel, Little Nightmares 2, has been announced for a 2020 release, featuring Six and a new character called Mono.[3]

Gameplay

Plot

A little girl named Six, dressed in a yellow raincoat, awakens from a dream of a woman resembling a Geisha. Armed with only a lighter, she sneaks through the bowels of the Maw, a massive iron vessel designed for much larger inhabitants. Throughout the Maw, she encounters several Nomes, small, skittish creatures that either flee her or passively observe her efforts. She also has the option to hug the Nomes should she get close to one. Through the Prison, where captured children are held, she evades carnivorous leeches that infest its depths and a pair of artificial Eyes that will turn her to stone should she be caught in their lights.

Six regularly experiences crippling bouts of hunger. On the first of these instances, another child gives her a piece of bread to eat. She is then captured by the blind, long-armed Janitor when he lures her into a cage with a piece of meat. She escapes but makes no effort to help the other children. She then falls into a room filled with piles of shoes and evades the unseen monster burrowing underneath. The Janitor eventually pursues Six into an elevator, where she severs his arms with the collapsing door.

Caught by another bout of hunger, Six is forced to eat a live rat which has been caught in a mousetrap. Via a conveyor belt, she travels to the Kitchen, where children wrapped up in paper are being sent. Here, the grotesque Twin Chefs are preparing a large feast and attempt to add Six to their recipe whenever she enters their line of sight. She escapes and makes her way outside, to the hull of the Maw, above the ocean waves.

Scaling the hull, Six witnesses a procession of obese, suited Guests from their vessel into the mouth of the Maw. They lumber into the Japanese-style dining hall, where they gorge themselves on red meat and wine. This feast is overseen by the mysterious Lady, the masked Geisha-like woman from Six’s dream. Noticing Six, several guests scramble after her, but she escapes. When she has another hunger attack, a friendly Nome offers her a sausage. However, having seen where the meat comes from, Six eats the Nome instead. As she does so, a shadowy, flickering vision of herself looks on.

Via an elevator, Six follows the Lady up into her Quarters, which are strewn with broken mirrors. The Lady takes notice of Six and pursues her through a dark corridor. Six finds an unbroken mirror, which she uses to repel the Lady when she tries to ambush her from the shadows. The sight of her own reflection causes the Lady pain and finally subdues her and knocks off her mask. As the Lady lies defenseless and weakened, Six approaches her and experiences a final hunger attack. She bites into the Lady’s neck, killing her and absorbing her magical powers.

Six walks back through the dining area, surrounded by a shadowy aura. The Guests try to eat her, but their lives are instantly drained by her new powers. She passes through a door with an eye encrusted in it and proceeds up a staircase and out into the sunlight, while some Nomes (depending on how many she had hugged throughout her journey) wait behind at the open doorway.

In the post-credits scene, Six is seen sitting by the entrance of the Maw waiting to be rescued while a foghorn is heard in the distance; implying that a ship is coming her way, or a new shipment of hungry Guests are about to arrive for their stay at the Maw.

Secrets of the Maw

A trio of DLC levels that offer a "different perspective on Six’s adventures" were planned. The first one was released in July 2017,[4] the second in November 2017 and the last in February 2018.[5][6]

The Depths

A young boy, known as the Runaway Kid (also called “The Kid” and "Seven"), wakes up from a nightmare involving him swimming in darkness before being dragged underwater. After leaving the Nursery, he spots the Janitor chasing one of the escaping children. The Kid follows a girl who is also fleeing, but she disappears and leaves her flashlight behind, which the Kid takes.

The Kid finds himself in the Depths of the Maw, which are heavily flooded and he has to avoid Leeches and make his way across by hopping on floating platforms. The Depths turn out to be the home of the Granny, who swims underwater and attempts to grab the Kid either by bumping and destroying the platforms he stands on or snatching him if he is in the water for too long. After pushing a television set into the water to electrocute and kill the Granny, the Kid makes his way to a tall wooden staircase with light coming through the top. He then reaches a ladder and climbs it, pushing through a grate. However, the light turns out to be a flashlight and he is caught by the Janitor and dragged into the darkness. The final scene shows the Kid in a cage next to other cages with children, including Six. The Janitor's long arms reach out and grab the Kid's cage and pull it off screen, paralleling Six's campaign just before she wakes up in the cage.

The Hideaway

The second DLC chapter is titled "The Hideaway" and features the Kid and the Nomes.[7] It starts with the Kid escaping from the paper he is wrapped in, which is ascending on a hook towards the Kitchen, and he falls to a new level of the Maw. With the help of the Nomes that he finds along the way, he finds an engine room where the Nomes are brought to throw coal in the furnace. One of the rooms in the area has a similar viewing machine as in the Lair, where the Kid can see places where Six has been, and he even witnesses Six herself treading through the room of shoes. During this campaign, the Kid also encounters the Janitor. After finding all the Nomes and bringing them to the engine room to help power up the furnace, the large bucket elevator in the back of the engine room becomes fully functional, ultimately lifting the Kid up to where the Nomes are gathered, presumably the "Hideaway". Then, after leaving through a crack in the wall, the Kid eventually finds himself on a rising platform, which is the top of an elevator where the Lady is standing.

The Residence

The chapter starts at the top of the elevator where the Lady was at the end of the Hideaway. In this campaign, the Kid finds himself in the Lady's Residence, eventually finding a room with several statues of the Lady. After solving puzzles to find three missing statues while fighting off the Shadow Children and eluding an Eye (the same security device from the Prison), he finds the Lady looking at herself in a mirror, her face in the reflection revealed to be gruesome and deformed, possibly explaining why she wears a mask. In the last room of the Residence, the Lady captures the Kid and transforms him into a Nome (explaining the origins of the Nomes). He then finds his way to the Guest Area and to the room with the sausage in Six's story. The chapter ends with the Kid standing by the sausage, indicating that it is him who Six eats. When the credits for the Secrets of the Maw roll, they are eventually shown on a television set, after which the screen shows a figure reminiscent of the Hanging Man.

Very Little Nightmares

A mobile app titled Very Little Nightmares was announced in April 2019 and was released in May 2019 on iOS. The story acts as a prequel to Little Nightmares.[8]

Plot

A young girl, known as “The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat”, wakes up in the Nest, a large mansion that resides on a tall, narrow island (having crash-landed through its roof in her hot-air balloon), and attempts to find a way out. Along the way, she encounters Six from the original game; Nomes (the same inhabitants from the Maw); the long-armed, wheelchair-bonded Craftsman; the crunching, handcuffed Butler, who has telekinetic powers; an unseen monster that lives under a large sea of garbage; and the Pretender (also called the Mistress), a young gray-haired girl, who is the owner of the Nest. Upon reaching the first floor, the Girl accidentally breaks one of the Pretender's dolls made from the bodies of the captured children, leading the Pretender to yell for the Butler as she runs out of the Nest. The Girl is then chased out of the Nest by the Butler and with Six's help, escapes into a shed on the other side of the island, but unknowingly locks Six out, mistaking her for the Butler. The Girl finds the Pretender crying over the doll that the Girl broke, who, upon seeing the Girl, gives chase. At one point, the Girl saves Six from falling down a cliff. The Girl is then cornered by the Pretender, but is saved when Six drops a boulder on her pursuer. The Pretender, who was unharmed by the boulder's impact, leaps at the Girl, causing them both to fall into the ocean where they presumably drown. The story ends with the Girl's raincoat emerging from the ocean and Six climbing down the island to escape. It is implied that Six recovered the Girl's raincoat, which she later wears in Little Nightmares.

Development

The game was originally announced by Tarsier Studios in May 2014 under the title Hunger, with no known publisher for release on PlayStation 4. After a teaser trailer in February 2015, nothing was heard of the project until August 2016, when Bandai Namco Entertainment announced that they had entered into a worldwide publishing agreement with Tarsier for the project, which was now re-titled Little Nightmares.[9]

Reception
Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
MetacriticPC: 81/100[10]
PS4: 78/100[11]
XONE: 83/100[12]
NS: 79/100[13]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Destructoid8.5/10[14]
Game Informer9/10[15]
GameRevolution[16]
GameSpot8/10[17]
GamesRadar+[18]
IGN8.8/10[19]
PC Gamer (US)78/100[20]
Polygon8.5/10[21]
VideoGamer.com9/10[22]

Little Nightmares received "generally positive" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[10][11][12][13]

Cory Arnold said on Destructoid "Little Nightmares hypnotized me with ever-present suspense," and awarded it a score of 8.5/10.[14]

Jonathan Leack from Game Revolution gave the game a score of 3 out of 5 stars saying that "Little Nightmares appears to have a double meaning. On one hand, the gameplay is a nightmare, regularly testing your patience and will to push forward. On the other, the atmosphere and audio design prove terrifying in a way that horror fiends will admire. There's an equal amount of qualities to like and dislike, but when it comes down to it Little Nightmares succeeds at delivering on its promise of being an interesting horror game unlike anything else."[16]

Sam Prell of GamesRadar+ awarded it 4 out of 5 stars stating that "At times mechanically clumsy, but artistically sound, Little Nightmares might get on your nerves every once in awhile, but its imagery will burrow into your brain and never leave."[18]

Joe Skrebels's score of 8.8/10 on IGN said that "gleefully strange, unceasingly grim, and quietly smart, Little Nightmares is a very welcome fresh take on horror."[19]

"An okay platformer but a deeply imaginative horror game, Little Nightmares is worth playing for its array of disturbing imagery," was Samuel's Roberts's conclusion on PC Gamer with a score of 78/100.[20]

Whitney Reynolds gave Little Nightmares an 8.5/10 score on Polygon with the consensus: "Little Nightmares worked its way into my dreams because it's just bright enough, just safe enough to make me let my guard down. The game isn’t always successful at balancing some game design fundamentals. But when the lights went out, it left me remembering that, really, I'm just a small thing in a dangerous world myself. Also, that monsters with big long grabby arms are really, really creepy."[21]

Alice Bell's 9/10 score on VideoGamer.com stated that "Little Nightmares is frightening, in a way that gets under your skin. A way that whispers in your ear that you won't sleep well tonight. Little Nightmares takes things you were afraid of when you were a kid, and reminds you you're still afraid now."[22]

Eurogamer ranked the game 28th on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017",[23] and GamesRadar+ ranked it 20th on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017,[24] while Polygon ranked it 27th on their list of the 50 best games of 2017.[25] It was nominated for "Best Platformer" and "Best Art Direction" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards.[26][27]

Sales

The game debuted at #4 on the UK all-format sales chart in its first week.[28] The Complete Edition sold 12,817 copies within its first week in Japan, placing it at #15 on the all-format sales chart.[29] As of August 2018, the game has sold over one million copies across all platforms.[30]

Accolades
YearAwardCategoryResultRef
2016 Gamescom 2016 Indie Award Won [31]
2017 Develop Awards New Games IP Nominated [32]
Golden Joystick Awards Best Visual Design Nominated [33]
Best Audio Nominated
2018 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction Nominated [34][35]
Emotional Games Awards 2018 Best Emotional Music Nominated [36]
National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards Animation, Artistic Nominated [37][38]
Art Direction, Contemporary Nominated
Game Design, New IP Nominated
Lighting/Texturing Nominated
Original Dramatic Score, New IP Nominated
Use of Sound, New IP Nominated

Legacy

Sequel

In regards to a sequel, Tarsier Studios stated that they had many ideas on things they still like to explore.[39] At Gamescom 2019, Little Nightmares 2 was announced for a 2020 release. It features a new player character known as Mono, with Six returning as a computer-controlled character.

Television series

Dmitri M. Johnson and Stephan Bugaj of DJ2 Entertainment announced that they will be producing a television adaptation of Little Nightmares. The series will also involve Anthony and Joe Russo and the pilot will be directed by Henry Selick.[40]

Comic books

Little Nightmares had a four issue tie-in comic,[41] written by John Shackleford and penciled by Aaron Alexovitch, and published by Titan Comics.[42] Two issues were released both in hard and digital copies. A hardcover graphic novel of the first two issues was released at the end of October 2017.[43][44] The third and fourth issues have been cancelled.

References
  1. Copeland, Wesley (18 January 2017). "Creepy Platformer Little Nightmares Gets a Release Date". IGN. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  2. Aguilos, Pia (27 May 2020). "Little Nightmares is set to launch on Google Stadia this June".
  3. Goslin, Austen. "Little Nightmares 2 announced at Gamescom 2019". Polygon. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  4. Torfe, Pat (July 10, 2017). "Return To 'Little Nightmares' In "The Depths" DLC!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  5. Donnelly, Joe (July 10, 2017). "Little Nightmares The Hideaway DLC out now, next chapter out February". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
  6. @LittleNights (February 5, 2018). "The next chapter will be released on February 23. It's less than 20 days away, now..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  7. @LittleNights (November 4, 2017). "The Hideaway – Chapter 2 from Secrets of The Maw, the expansion pass of #littlenightmares. Available next week!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  8. Wales, Matt (2019-04-10). "Darkly adorable horror platformer Little Nightmares is getting a prequel on iOS". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  9. Matulef, Jeffrey (11 August 2016). "Bandai Namco picks up evocative horror game Hunger, rebrands it Little Nightmares". Eurogamer. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  10. "Little Nightmares for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  11. "Little Nightmares for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  12. "Little Nightmares for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  13. "Little Nightmares: Complete Edition for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  14. Arnold, Cory (21 April 2017). "Review: Little Nightmares". Destructoid. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  15. Cork, Jeff (25 April 2017). "A Grotesque Tale That Plays Off The Familiar - Little Nightmares - PC". Game Informer. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  16. Leack, Jonathan (26 April 2017). "Little Nightmares Review". Game Revolution. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  17. Espineli, Matt (28 April 2017). "Little Nightmares Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  18. Prell, Sam (27 April 2017). "Little Nightmares review: 'Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, if Spirited Away was grotesque and horrifying.'". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  19. Skrebels, Joe (26 April 2017). "Little Nightmares Review". IGN. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  20. Robert, Samuel (24 April 2017). "Little Nightmares review". PC Gamer. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  21. Reynolds, Whitney (21 April 2017). "Little Nightmares review". Polygon. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  22. Bell, Alice (21 April 2017). "Little Nightmares Review". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  23. Eurogamer staff (28 December 2017). "Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2017: 30-21". Eurogamer. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  24. GamesRadar staff (22 December 2017). "The best games of 2017". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  25. Polygon staff (18 December 2017). "The 50 best games of 2017". Polygon. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  26. "Best of 2017 Awards: Best Platformer". IGN. 20 December 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  27. "Best of 2017 Awards: Best Art Direction". IGN. 20 December 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  28. Dring, Christopher (30 April 2017). "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is Nintendo's first UK No.1 since 2011". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  29. Romano, Sal (June 13, 2018). "Media Create Sales: 6/4/18 – 6/10/18". Gematsu. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  30. Arif, Shabana (August 16, 2018). "Little Nightmares Sells 1 Million Copies". IGN. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  31. "Best of Gamescom 2016 Winners Selected by Gamescom Committee". The Video Game Librarian. 19 August 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  32. Cleaver, Sean (12 May 2017). "Develop Awards 2017: The Finalists". MCV. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  33. Gaito, Eri (13 November 2017). "Golden Joystick Awards 2017 Nominees". Best in Slot. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  34. Makuch, Eddie (14 January 2018). "Game Of The Year Nominees Announced for DICE Awards". GameSpot. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  35. Makuch, Eddie (22 February 2018). "Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Wins Game Of The Year At DICE Awards". GameSpot. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  36. "Emotional Games Awards 2018". Emotional Games Awards. 12 March 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  37. "Nominee List for 2017". National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. 9 February 2018. Archived from the original on 15 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  38. "Horizon wins 7; Mario GOTY". National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. 13 March 2018. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  39. THR staff (30 May 2017). "'Little Nightmares' Lead Designers on Studio Ghibli Influence and a Possible Sequel". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  40. Kit, Borys (12 June 2017). "The Russo Brothers Adapting Video Game 'Little Nightmares' for TV (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  41. Bell, Alice (February 15, 2017). "Little Nightmares is getting a comic mini-series". Video Gamer. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
  42. Mueller, Matthew (April 11, 2017). "EXCLUSIVE: Little Nightmares #1 Reveals First Interior Art". Comic Book.com. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
  43. "Little Nightmares Vol.1". titan-comics.com. October 31, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  44. "Little Nightmares Hardcover – October 31, 2017". Amazon.com. October 31, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
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