Horror! From Tarsier Studios in Malmö of Sweden we have Little Nightmares (2017), clearly inspired by the impeccable brilliance of INSIDE (2016).

And that’s no bad thing! As this is an atmospheric, spooky, and riveting fun little puzzle-platformer that’ll warp your silly mind.

Little Nightmares (the indie game)

If you’ve played INSIDE before (and you really should have by now), then you’ll know what’s in store here.

In Little Nightmares you take control of Six, who’s (ironically) a nine-year-old girl donned out in a yellow raincoat. She’s trapped on a large underwater vessel known as the Maw.

It’s your job to get her out of there, but the only thing you have to help you (besides from the excellent raincoat) is a lighter.

Thusly, you must use your stealth and puzzle solving skills to overcome the various perils that await you.

It is, essentially, a puzzle game. As you waltz to the right, you come across blockades and figure out how to get around them. Behold!

Where Little Nightmares does a grand job is with its sense of suspense.

There are some scary moments in the game, largely ramped up as Six is such a defenceless little yellow thing.

So when you go up against The Lady, for example, you’re left flapping about desperately trying to survive.

So all of this doesn’t get repetitive, the game is short. You can complete the thing in two hours, which is again very similar to INSIDE.

The reality is Little Nightmares is a great video game, although irritating in its progression at time. Checkpoints are not well placed in the event of a death, which can be frustrating.

Yet there are enough surprises to make you swoon regularly. And the graphics, sound, atmospherics, and all that lot are fabulous.

But it simply isn’t as good as INSIDE, which we’d class as one of the best games ever.

Despite Little Nightmares not reaching such lofty heights isn’t too much of a problem. It’s just we’d recommend getting Playdead’s classic first.

However, if you want a puzzle-platformer experience more heavily entrenched in horror stuffs (in a cutesy Resident Evil 7 kind of way) then it’s a grand option.

Little Nightmare’s Soundtrack

Little Nightmares’ soundtrack is by Tobias Lilja. It mixes ambience with electronica and techno to interesting effect.

Obviously there are nifty sound effects to ramp up the jump scares and sense of dread. But it’s the music that makes Little Nightmares the atmospheric romp that it is.

At times the music drops away to leave murky silence and the like, all of which is managed to excellent effect.

Bravo, we say! Now we have to try out Little Nightmares II to see how Tarsier Studios advanced the whole thing.