With so many highly anticipated AAA being released this year, such as Starfield, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, Diablo IV, and the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, gamers have been having a stellar time all throughout 2023. There’s almost a little too many fantastic games to choose from; a great problem to have, without a doubt. The most difficult part is trying to find the time to fit all of these great games in. Then there’s the fact that most of these AAA games can run at least one hundred hours or more. While this is truly one of the best times to be a gamer, sometimes the amount of epic and massive games can feel a bit daunting. Sometimes you just want a nice, relaxing, and shorter experience. Sometimes you just want A Tiny Sticker Tale.

A Tiny Sticker Tale from indie developer Ogre Pixel, is a short but sweet adventure. It follows Flynn, a young donkey living on Figori Island, who is looking to reunite with their father. The father communicates with Flynn by leaving scrolls around Figori Island to find throughout their journey. He explains about the power of helping others, and teaches Flynn how to use their most prized possession: a magical sticker book.

The core gameplay mechanic revolves around Flynn collecting and using stickers. Nearly everything on Figori Island is a sticker, so Flynn can collect certain stickers as quest items, use them with various points of interest in order to solve puzzles, or even simply rearrange the environment to your liking. Flynn can enter Sticker Mode to pluck stickers from the island and place them within the magical sticker book to be stored until needed again. Occasionally, moving the stickers around the environment will yield unexpected results, so it’s a good idea to try playing around with everything.

A Tiny Sticker Tale is comprised of various puzzles. These usually come in the form of helping the other inhabitants of Figori Island. For example, there’s a young turtle who’s an up-and-coming musician, but his violin is trapped beneath a rock. Flynn can use the bomb sticker on the rock to blast it into little pieces, freeing the violin. The majority of the puzzles are simple and straightforward like this, but a few for the sidequests are actually quite clever. I found myself enjoying the extra objectives not directly related to the main story the most.

There’s no denying that A Tiny Sticker Tale is incredibly charming. All of the cartoony, large-eyed, anthropomorphic inhabitants of Figori Island are absolutely adorable. The art design as whole is expertly crafted, with the objects and characters being set within a series of small, diorama-like areas. It’s incredibly clean and vibrant, truly looking like a world made up of stickers.

Like everything else in A Tiny Sticker Tale, the sound design is enchanting. There’s no voice acting, but the sound effects of removing and placing stickers are surprisingly dynamic, and the ambient sounds of Figori Island are wonderful. There aren’t a ton of songs in the soundtrack, but what’s there fits the tone of each area very well. Most of the musical is cheery and upbeat, just like the rest of the game.

Even though A Tiny Sticker Tale is a very short game, taking only between two hours if you just stick to the main story and closer to four if you find everything, it is an adventure that’s very much worth your time. I haven’t been this enchanted by a bite-sized game since A Short Hike. With there being an abundance of massive and overly long games out right now, sometimes you just need a brief and captivating reprieve. A Tiny Sticker Tale might be tiny in length, but it’s big in heart.

Graphics: 9.0 Incredibly clean and vibrant, this truly looks like a world made of stickers.	Gameplay: 9.0 Collect and use stickers to get past obstacles and help people around the island. The puzzles are usually pretty simple, but a few are quite clever.
Sound: 8.0 An upbeat and cheery soundtrack that fits the cute tone of the game well.	Fun Factor: 8.0 A wonderful, short adventure full of heart and charm. It’s a delight the whole way through.
Final Verdict: 8.5

A Tiny Sticker Tale is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of A Tiny Sticker Tale was provided by the publisher.