Squirreled Away, (not to be confused with Squirrel Away which is another upcoming Steam game, or Squirreled Away the MTG card deck) is the newest game from developer Far Seas, and publisher Amplifier Studios. Squirreled Away is an adorable third person exploration game where you play as a squirrel, getting up to mischief, helping out the local wildlife, building yourself a treetop home and having lots of fun.

Our adventure begins with our little furry friend stuck in a mound of sand. We must jump to get him out, and we’re allowed to free-roam basically straight away. The scenery and simplistic art style pull me in immediately, and the bright colour pallet of the environment is really pleasing to explore. There’s a linear path to our first objective, so we can’t get too lost or overwhelmed (especially since we’re so small in such a big world). We meet a turtle named Terry, and he just fits in the world so well. All the creatures have a very consistent art style with the world, and are all sized accurately to each other. The cohesiveness is top notch and there’s not a single item or creature that looks out of place.

While tasks such as chopping up sticks and breaking rocks use energy, movement around the map does not. The movement feels incredibly smooth and very fluid, allowing you to run through the forest, climb the tallest trees, all with the ease of a real squirrel. Not having a stamina bar for these activities feels really nice, and means you never need to worry about falling from a height and tumbling to your death. These choices make sense as you’re playing as a squirrel, which fall at such a low terminal velocity that they’re very unlikely to ever hurt themselves from a fall, but it’s honestly a refreshing change from a lot of recent games to just be able to explore to your hearts content with no limitation beside swimming.

For permanent buffs, there are golden acorns scattered across the map to find. Whenever you find a golden acorn, your squirrel wraps their tail around it and gives it a big snuggle, then when it pops to be sent home.  They do a ‘surprised pikachu‘ face in response, and it’s the cutest thing ever. The golden acorns get returned to the respawn/meditation point, and for any you haven’t found, each pillar contains a clue as to the location. They’re not super hard to find, and I enjoy the little audio cue that plays when you’re close to their location.

All of the animal friends you can encounter through Squirreled Away are really unique in their personalities, and very charming. The hedgehogs have prickly personalities, the birds are chirpy and quick with their responses. They all feel like the animal they are, and I really enjoy that aspect of the game. They fit perfectly into the world, and the background noise of chirping birds and bugs and wind make everything feel very cohesive. My only issue with the sound is that there’s only one repeating audio track in each location, and they seem to cut out randomly sometimes. It’s not a huge deal, but it did catch me off guard a bit.

Not everything is sunshine and rainbows though, as there are clear signs that humans live here. While you don’t encounter them, what you can encounter is the bulldog who really doesn’t like squirrels. He’ll chase you down if you get too close to the house and bite you if you get within range of him. He’s fairly easy to avoid simply by running away or climbing up a tree, but it’s good to be on the lookout for him since the closest respawn point is a little bit of a run away.

As fun and charming as this game is, it can get a little bit repetitive at times, especially if you’re playing for a long time in one sitting. It’s a gathering and building sim at its core, which means a lot of chopping down sticks and gathering stone, and any other materials you need for crafting. I know that can get a bit grindy for people, but I personally don’t mind it. It would be nice if there was a little bit more variety in the game, such as minigames you could participate in with other squirrels, perhaps like a game of soccer with an acorn or something.

Squirreled Away has so much to do and explore, from building yourself a lovely treetop home to fishing, flying around in a wingsuit like a sugar glider, helping out the other local wildlife, or just taking in the scenery. It’s the sort of game you could play and lose time in while listening to a podcast, just running around completing whatever task you set for yourself. There is also a co-op mode where up to four friends can get together and get up to all sorts of squirrely mischief.