Mai: Child of Ages from Chubby Pixel is a 3D action adventure through time in which you must give it your all to save the universe. Learn more in our Mai: Child of Ages review!
Mai: Child of Ages from Chubby Pixel is a 3D action adventure through time in which you must give it your all to save the universe. You’ll be taking on the role of the titular character, playing through different stages of her life, from childhood to adolescence. You’ll have access to special powers that will help you to shape the future of not only yourself, but the whole universe! Your adventure begins after you wake up at home, where you live with your grandfather. You’re only four years of age, but the journey that follows will certainly shape you for years to come. Things will start to fall into place once you locate and start to use the seed of time…
This is a game that pays homage to the beloved The Legend of Zelda series, in particular to the 3D entries in the franchise that we’ve received. Yes, the time travel element is definitely a play on what Nintendo did with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64. It’s an experience that has a bit of a rough start, since it will ask you to complete a fetch quest – 10 sticks for your granpa to make a fire for breakfast – and then having to recover some goats that have run away after an earthquake… with framerate issues and lots of pop-in. A few minutes later, you’ll end up falling into a cave. It’s here that the game starts to find its footing, right before you’re pretty much asked to save the world.
Since this is a 3D action adventure, you’ll take control of Mai with the left analog stick, while using the right analog stick to move the camera around as needed. Jump by pressing the B button. Dodge by pressing the ZR button. Press and hold down this button to sprint. You can press the Y button to interact with other characters or objects. As you collect new items, you’ll be provided with a short description for them as they’re added to your inventory. You can open your inventory by pressing the + button, from where you’ll be able to review everything you’ve collected. Lock onto targets by pressing the L button. Oh, and you can whistle by pressing the R button. Because. Because reasons.
Once you make the jump to when Mai has grown into an adolescent, you’ll notice she won’t be as fast as her younger self. She also won’t be able to jump on command. On the plus side, she’s much stronger and taller. This will allow her to climb over small ledges as well as climb by using vines… as long as she has enough stamina left for it. She will also use the Uroboro Stone to take on the deadly enemies that are poisoning the land. Use its sword form to slash away at them to get the job done! You’ll also gain access to the Tempo Shield to defend yourself from incoming attacks.
Mai: Child of Ages is a 3D action adventure through time in which you must give it your all to save the universe. You’ll be taking on the role of the titular character, playing through different stages of her life, from childhood to adolescence. You’ll have access to special powers that will help you to shape the future of not only yourself, but the whole universe! Your adventure begins after you wake up at home, where you live with your grandfather. You’re only four years of age, but the journey that follows will certainly shape you for years to come. Things will start to fall into place once you locate and start to use the seed of time…
Some sacrifices had to be made to get the game running on the Nintendo Switch. The framerate has been set to 30 frames per second, the resolution has been lowered, and there’s going to be a lot of pop-in as you play the game. This is instantly noticeable as soon as you step out of your house and start to look for sticks early in the game. There’s going to be plenty of pop-in as you move around searching for the sticks, with objects materializing in and out of existence. I even had some rocks in front of me pop up and change as I jumped in place. This is a game that could have definitely benefited from a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
After five long years in development, the small team at Chubby Pixel has finally released its ambitious adventure. The developer has stated in their Mai: Child of Ages Development Blog, that it’s working on some additional free DLC for the game to expand on the overall content, with new story chapters and additional dungeons. This, hopefully, also means that Chubby Pixel is working on a patch or two that will improve performance on Nintendo’s console. Mai: Child of Ages is out on Nintendo Switch with a $14.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Mai: Child of Ages review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Chubby Pixel.
