When playing and then contemplating reviews for most indie games a key step, at least for me, is trying to determine who the game is intended for. While my own personal preferences and opinions obviously creep into reviews, since I review such a wide variety of games it’s imperative to try to consider them as much as possible through the lens of their target audience. With so many games being so niche, and even more fringe audiences deserving quality content made for them, I consider this to be vital.

With that in mind, it really concerns me when I start out with one picture in my head for who the game would be best suited to, but then there are inconsistencies. Those issues are then exacerbated when my impression is that it’s a family-friendly title, but then fails to clearly stay in that lane. That’s where I’ve landed with Ginger - The Tooth Fairy, and it really makes it a challenge to feel positive about it. It’s a relatively cute platformer featuring a pretty slow pace, floaty jumping, and a whimsical style. So far, so good. But it’s somewhat oddly non-linear nature, which will require you to wander around a bit to figure out where to go, it’s lack of general guidance, a variety of items you can collect with no direction on what they’re for, periodic difficulty spikes, and oddly punitive deaths all work completely in the opposite direction.

The result is a game that looks overly cute and moves too slowly for an average gamer, but then has design elements and flow that are likely to simply frustrate younger or less experienced ones. In most regards it plays relatively easily, but as I wandered around, unsure of where I was supposed to be going at times, I was thinking I’d hate to subject an even more impatient child looking for some fun to this same experience. Especially when it comes to games for younger players, consistency is key. Sure, you could throw a periodic bone to more experienced gamers for giggles here and there, but they should be clearly partitioned off somewhere or at least have some sort of clear skill gate to get to. By just intermingling it all together at once, it just feels like a package that will struggle to fully satisfy any audience.