In a year already stacking up plates of delicious indie game dishes so fast they’re toppling over and crashing onto the floor, spilling splattered food over the carpet to be hoovered up by waiting dogs/cats/raccoons/mice, Animal Well is one of the most generous helpings yet. The captivating, combat-free Metroidvania is rich with a delectable buffet of challenges, puzzles and secrets to find even once you’ve seen the credits roll. Still, players have chewed their way through its more-ish platforming and puzzle-solving much faster than its solo developer intended, it turns out. Luckily for us all, creator Billy Basso is already looking ahead to a new game set in the moody zoo-niverse - even if that’s not a complete sequel.

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There's a plethora of secrets to uncover, solve, and unlock in Animal Well, many of which keep the game going long after the credits have rolled. Some, like the Kangaroos, are right there for you to see from the start, but you won't know what to do with them until much later.

With multiple routes through the game and a wide range of tools to collect to help you explore even more of its dense, damp world, Animal Well is a game you can easily lose yourself in. The best part is that a lot of its secrets aren't presented as such; you'll simply stumble across parts of them and will need to uncover exactly how they work. In the case of Kangaroos, there's a boss, a tool, and lots of potential death to contend with, especially if you don't know what you're doing.

How to find all the Kangaroos in Animal Well and what to do with them

You can find Kangaroos in several rooms in Animal Well, but you only need to find three. The goal is to get them to appear by using the Lantern or stumbling into them while they're roaming a room, then using a Firework to spook them. This causes them to drop K Shards, which are used to create an item that will net you the Bouncy Ball.

The first area I found a Kangaroo in is the room with pillars leading to the room with rat platforms that take you down to the Ostrich area. This Kangaroo was almost always waiting for me at the top of the room. If it's not there for you, go and check elsewhere and then return later.

The second room where I found a Kangaroo is the one with two dogs jumping upwards, but not the Dog Bowl room. You'll rush through this room when trying to beat the Ghost Cat boss. I had to use the Lantern to get the Kangaroo to appear here.

I encountered the third Kangaroo in the room with ghosts blocking your way. This room is easy to get through using the Lantern, but that draws in the Kangaroo, so you'll need your Fireworks handy, too, if you want that K Shard.

I also found a Kangaroo down in the Ostrich area after beating that boss. If you pull out the lantern and walk between the cat code and the entrance down there, you should find a Kangaroo as long as you haven't already spooked it.

Where to use the K Medal and get the Bouncy Ball in Animal Well

Once you've spooked three Kangaroos in Animal Well, you'll have collected enough K Shards to create the K Medal. This is an item that can only be used in one specific location. It's a room in the pink biome of the map, off to the left-hand side. See above for a map reference for this room.

I've seen some players call this area the Kangaroo Room, but the best description I can think of is the Bat Cave. To get here, you'll go through an incredibly dark room where a giant Bat boss lurks. However, you don't need to kill it to proceed. I managed to get through here to claim the chest in the Kangaroo Room without even realizing the Bat was in here the first time I entered it.

The K Medal is used in the pedestal in the Kangaroo Room. It opens up access to a new room where you can drop down and pick up the Bouncy Ball item. This item can smash spikes on the floor or ceiling and distract dogs. It's pretty useful if you're trying to clear a route for you to travel through using your Bubble Wand. Outside of the chest in this room, though, there's nothing else to find.

How to defeat the Bat boss in Animal Well

If you want to defeat the Bat boss, which I suggest you do because there's a Candle in its cave to light, then you'll need a stash of Fireworks. These can harm the boss, but the boss can hurt you too. Once you've lit the Candle, throw a Firework to damage the boss as it screeches to trap you. Then, repeat the process twice to get it to fly off and leave you alone.

Candles play into how you get the UV Wand in Animal Well. You'll need to light all of them to get it, so this is something that's worth doing if you want to see everything the game has to offer. If you're not that bothered, then you can skip this boss.

The post How to find all the Kangaroos and get the Bouncy Ball in Animal Well appeared first on Destructoid.

In the dripping midnight glade there is a telephone resting on the earth. It's an antique. I can tell that from the limited 2D pixel art. Although it's just a few lines and dots and smudges of light, I can imagine the weight of the receiver in my hands, almost feel that strange matte chill of the Bakelite.

The telephone is important here in Animal Well. It's how you save the game, for starters. But the more I have explored, making those long looping journeys left, right, up and down, the more I have found myself heading further out in these directions than I had assumed was possible, and the more I worried that I had left the actual game design behind and was moving through a landscape of personalised glitches and oddities? The more I did all this, the more the sight of another telephone came as a sweet relief. A save point, yes, but also a sign that someone had been this way before me. A sign that even as I navigated bright mysteries, I was still on the right track.

There's more. The telephone is also a sign of a second world imposed on the first one, of technology, communication, cablings and wires and electrons, of messages buzzing through an artificial network threaded into this glade and into this world of trees and grass, rock and ruin that lies beyond it. If you're trying to understand Animal Well, to get to the bottom of it - good luck with that one by the way - or if you're trying to just get even the slightest grip on this game's dense, intriguing, endlessly playful and engrossing world, the telephone is probably a good place to start.

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In the dripping midnight glade there is a telephone resting on the earth. It's an antique. I can tell that from the limited 2D pixel art. Although it's just a few lines and dots and smudges of light, I can imagine the weight of the receiver in my hands, almost feel that strange matte chill of the Bakelite.

The telephone is important here in Animal Well. It's how you save the game, for starters. But the more I have explored, making those long looping journeys left, right, up and down, the more I have found myself heading further out in these directions than I had assumed was possible, and the more I worried that I had left the actual game design behind and was moving through a landscape of personalised glitches and oddities? The more I did all this, the more the sight of another telephone came as a sweet relief. A save point, yes, but also a sign that someone had been this way before me. A sign that even as I navigated bright mysteries, I was still on the right track.

There's more. The telephone is also a sign of a second world imposed on the first one, of technology, communication, cablings and wires and electrons, of messages buzzing through an artificial network threaded into this glade and into this world of trees and grass, rock and ruin that lies beyond it. If you're trying to understand Animal Well, to get to the bottom of it - good luck with that one by the way - or if you're trying to just get even the slightest grip on this game's dense, intriguing, endlessly playful and engrossing world, the telephone is probably a good place to start.

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One of the first creatures you'll likely encounter while exploring the world of Animal Well is the Ostrich. This long-necked beast wants to eat your character, and it won't beat around the bush. Unless you know what you're doing, it'll chase you, corner you, and make a light snack of you.

You might just lose your mind when you first meet the Ostrich in Animal Well. Every creature up until this point has been pretty docile, but here's a much larger one that'll try to stomp on you and grab you in its beak with an added advantage. Its incredibly long neck allows it to pursue you around corners as you attempt to escape it. But don't worry—there's an easy way to get past it.

How to get past the Ostrich in Animal Well

To get past the Ostrich in Animal Well, you need to dive underground beneath its feet, press every button you find, and escape through the door once it's unlocked. This is much easier said than done, much like every boss-like creature in the game, but there's one trick you can use to ensure you get through this encounter unscathed.

There are five holes in the ground in the Ostrich room. Within these are four switches that you must press to unlock the door and escape. The Ostrich will reach down with its head and peck your last known location, so you need to time your jumps to avoid it as it does so.

Then, when the Ostrich attacks, get away from it and into one of the holes so you can find and press a button. The Ostrich's neck will likely follow you, so get as far into the hole as possible because the creature can't reach right into the corners.

After a short while, the Ostrich retracts its head, allowing you to escape and make a break for another hole. However, the Ostrich can trick you and push its head back down in an attempt to attack you again. Keep an eye out for what the creature is doing as you move, and you should be fine.

It took me longer than I'd like to admit to get past the Ostrich in Animal Well because I wimped out and tackled other parts of the map first. This big bird isn't nearly as scary as it looks, but it'll kill you if you get caught. Stick to the holes and get right into the corners. As long as you're careful, you should unlock the door and escape in no time.

The post How to get past the Ostrich in Animal Well appeared first on Destructoid.

There's a menagerie of creatures for players to contend with in Animal Well. Some are dotted around the world, and others, like the Snake, are in set locations with a puzzle that can have you scratching your head for a long time.

Animal Well's Snake is a creature you won't meet until you're exploring the final few nooks and crannies of the game's world. When you do, it can be a bit of a challenge because it wants to crush you while you attempt to escape its arena. The additional element of difficulty here is that the arena is built to lock you in, blocking Bubbles and your Disc, so you've got to think your way out of it using a new method.

How to get past the Snake in Animal Well

You'll need to get past the Snake twice in Animal Well. The first is after you enter its room, having found the S Medal and using it on the snake statue near the starting room. A this point, you'll be on the right-hand side of the room and want to get to the left, past the Snake.

As you can see in the image above, the Snake will move around the room, creating shapes you can jump on. However, the creature will crush you if you stop moving, so this is pretty risky. Getting across with the Disc is impossible because of the vines dangling in front of both exits from the room, and this makes using Bubbles pretty challenging, too. The Snake will also pop these Bubbles and chase you faster than you can create them.

The solution is to tease the Snake into the right-hand corner of the room, run to the left, jump on its head, and ride it to the exit. Jump off the Snake's head before it crushes you against the ceiling. Beyond this room, you'll find a new item: the Remote.

This brings us to the second encounter with the Snake, which is much easier. The Remote will cause the Snake to come under your control so you can move it up, down, left, and right. Once you control it, try getting it to eat all the fruit in the room.

After you're done messing around with the Snake, you can use the Remote to create a bridge or steps to the exit, allowing you to get from the left-hand side of the room to the right-hand side exit where you first entered. Don't forget to explore the room above the Snake's room by using Bubbles because there's an Egg in there you could easily miss.

The post How to get past the Snake in Animal Well appeared first on Destructoid.

Animal Well players have been sharing an awesome discovery that allows them to completely skip one of the most complicated sections of the game, the Ostrich puzzle. While it's amazing how the game allows for this skip, its discovery also makes me wonder how much of my life I've wasted playing legitimately.

In Animal Well, players are presented with puzzles that grow in complexity as they acquire new tools for traversal and that help them interact with the game's world. However, you don't need to use these tools for their intended purpose, and the Ostrich skip that many players are using now proves it. In fact, this skip may be the better way to complete the Ostrich puzzle because it avoids a soft lock.

Animal Well's Ostrich skip made me feel incredibly dumb for solving the entire puzzle

User rw_3eters on the Animal Well subreddit shared what they believed was the legitimate solution to the main Ostrich puzzle. This puzzle requires players to travel over and under quite a large area, pressing buttons before being chased by an Ostrich in a hamster wheel that might crush them. It culminates in a race to press a button to drop the Ostrich into the water and cause it to press the buttons required to open a door.

https://www.reddit.com/r/animalWell/comments/1cp7cx5/very_much_not_the_intended_solution/

This skip makes the puzzle, which equates to one of Animal Well's boss encounters, entirely unnecessary, though. All you need to do is place the Slink on the left-hand side of the bridge, the main character on the right, and then use the Yo-Yo to drop the bridge, the Slink, and the character onto the buttons to open the door. It's remarkably simple and makes the legitimate solution's stress feel unnecessary.

When I saw this, I felt really dumb for not even contemplating it. I didn't try to open this bridge at all; instead, I moved left to discover the Ostrich and work out the puzzle's solution based on that. What makes me feel worse is how users in the comments to rw_3eters' posts are saying they used this, too. I may even be the only player who does not use this solution.

Once I got over the humiliation, I realized what this says about Animal Well. The fact that you can complete a massively complicated puzzle with such a simple solution shows how open it is to be approached in any way players see fit. In fact, this solution helps to avoid soft locking a chest further into the Ostrich area, which you can block once you hit a certain point while solving it.

I can't help but wonder how many more simple solutions there are out there to the game's puzzles that maybe even the developer didn't account for. This post comes mere days after Animal Well was released, so I can't even imagine what its Any% speedruns will look like at the next GDQ.

The post Animal Well players discover amazing Ostrich skip, and makes me feel incredibly dumb appeared first on Destructoid.

While exploring Animal Well's pretty expansive underground world, you might not realize that you could be marking the map every time you find a puzzle you can't solve or a collectible just out of reach to make your life easier later.

Following a successful launch, players are diving headfirst into Animal Well, the first game from Videogamedunkey's publisher Bigmode. The game is designed to challenge you with puzzles you won't understand or even find until you've completed other tasks elsewhere. However, one important note players are sharing as they discover it is that you can mark the map to give yourself pointers for areas where you've still got something to do.

How to find and use The Stamp in Animal Well

To mark the map in Animal Well, you need to open the map in-game and press the button that corresponds to the time you want to use to mark it. You can use a pencil to draw on the map, but you can also find an item called The Stamp. The Stamp allows you to stamp icons on Animal Well's map to help you remember bosses, enemies, or just something you noticed that might be important later.

You'll find The Stamp up and to the left from where you found the map. Climb the ladders in the room with the green penguins and head left to find a room with four doors. The Stamp is in the chest you find in this room.

The game is built so that if you get stuck on certain parts of it, such as the Chameleon boss, you can come back later because there's so much else you could be doing or a new area to explore at the same time. This type of open-ended gameplay really benefits from the map-marking mechanics because you're encouraged to get out there and go anywhere.

Animal Well's world is dense and surprisingly large by the time you've explored most of it. The map seems to go on and on, even when you think you've found every secret, item, and collectible. Marking the map makes your life so much easier in the long run because you can open it and instantly see areas you haven't explored or where you noticed something you need to return to.

For your own sanity, please don't neglect this feature. I did, and when I saw others using it, I had to put the game down, cradle my head in my hands, and let the waves of emotion, mostly humiliation, wash over me before I could get back to exploring.

Map markers were a great help when it came to noting the parts of rooms with openings to other rooms that I couldn't reach with my current equipment. Items you acquire after a certain point allow you to explore previously unreachable areas, so having these marked made my next session of exploration so much easier.

The post PSA: You can mark the map in Animal Well to help yourself find eggs and secrets appeared first on Destructoid.

In the dripping midnight glade there is a telephone resting on the earth. It's an antique. I can tell that from the limited 2D pixel art. Although it's just a few lines and dots and smudges of light, I can imagine the weight of the receiver in my hands, almost feel that strange matte chill of the Bakelite.

The telephone is important here in Animal Well. It's how you save the game, for starters. But the more I have explored, making those long looping journeys left, right, up and down, the more I have found myself heading further out in these directions than I had assumed was possible, and the more I worried that I had left the actual game design behind and was moving through a landscape of personalised glitches and oddities? The more I did all this, the more the sight of another telephone came as a sweet relief. A save point, yes, but also a sign that someone had been this way before me. A sign that even as I navigated bright mysteries, I was still on the right track.

There's more. The telephone is also a sign of a second world imposed on the first one, of technology, communication, cablings and wires and electrons, of messages buzzing through an artificial network threaded into this glade and into this world of trees and grass, rock and ruin that lies beyond it. If you're trying to understand Animal Well, to get to the bottom of it - good luck with that one by the way - or if you're trying to just get even the slightest grip on this game's dense, intriguing, endlessly playful and engrossing world, the telephone is probably a good place to start.

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Update: Annnnnnnd they already solved it.

Mind-bending puzzle metroidvania Animal Well just released yesterday, and already a community of players is tearing the game apart to find its many, many, many, many secrets. Right now, that includes a ridiculously complicated puzzle that requires at least 50 different people to participate. And just one day after …

Animal Well reviewed by Rebekah Valentine on Switch and PC, also available on PlayStation 5.Animal Well is a veritable feast of brain teasers that’s far more concerned with twisting your mind into knots than any grueling platforming challenges. It’s lovely to look at thanks to gorgeous pixel art and dynamic lighting, and an excellent use of haptics and well-tuned physics systems make it fun to touch, too. The steadily unlocked toybox of tools thoroughly rewards play, curiosity, and experimentation for hours upon hours after the credits roll. Though that late-game maze of mind-teasers might grate once in a while if you’re reluctant to ask for help, the massive onion of Animal Well’s secrets remains dense, clever, and thrilling even when you’ve peeled back as many layers as you think you possibly can… and then peeled a few more beyond that.

Computers have always been animal wells, in a sense. They're havens for creatures of many shapes and degrees of literalness, all the way down to the metal. As in ecologies at large, the most abundant and widespread are probably the bugs, beginning with the moth that flew into that Harvard Mark II in 1947 and ending with the teeming contents of the average free-to-play changelog. A little further up the food chain we find "worms", like the Creeper that once invaded the ARPANET, and "gophers", a directory/client system written in 1991 for the University of Minnesota. There are computer animals spawned by branding - foxes of fire and twittering birds and the anonymous beasts that haunt the margins of Google documents. There are computer animals that are implied by the verbs we use in computing - take "browser", derived from the old French word for nibbling at buds and sprouts, which suggests that all modern internet searches are innately herbivorous.

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Hello and welcome back to What To Play! We've returned from a little hiatus, which you definitely noticed and have been very sad about, of course. It's finally edging towards spring here in the UK, but don't let that tempt you into going outside, there's video games to be a-playin'!

As ever, this is where we'll round up the best games from the month gone by, and the things we're most excited to play from the month ahead - plus, any other suggestions for what might complement it. Here's What To Play This May 2024.

Availability: Out now on PC, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

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2024 looks quiet....if you're not looking at the incredible indie space.

There’s an uncomfortable sense among the gaming community, as industry layoff numbers stack up, project after project is cancelled, and as console life cycles slow, that we’re on the cusp of a bit of a video game dry spell. That feeling isn’t totally unfounded - there are very few AAA …