The main characters in these games are brave tiny heroes.
Most of the time, the hero of a story has to face a big problem to get to their goal. It can be hard for a normal-sized hero to travel through a world and deal with the problems that come up. But when the hero in question is shrunk down from their normal size, it adds a whole new level of challenge.
Many video games have some kind of shrinking feature, either because the hero starts out small or because they learn how to get smaller. But even though being small might seem like a bad thing, there are many good things about it. And there are lots of games where the heroes are small that show this in motion.
Psychonauts 2
Psychonauts 2, which came out in 2021, was a much-loved follow-up to Double Fine’s famous 3D platform game from 2005. In these games, there is a boy named Raz who wants to join the Psychonauts, an elite group of people who can travel through other people’s thoughts.
Raz gets shrunk down a lot in Psychonauts 2 because that’s how he can get into someone’s brain. On many levels, things that are usually small are also much bigger than usual. This makes Raz look even smaller than he did before.
WarioWare: Get It Together
WarioWare is one of the strangest Nintendo series. It is a game with many minigames that players try to beat as quickly as possible across a number of levels. In older games, the player was the one who played each of the small games. But in WarioWare: Get It Together, it’s the small versions of WarioWare heroes who talk to each other.
After Wario and the other developers at his game company get sucked into his device, they have to work together to beat a bunch of microgames they made and figure out how to get out. Each hero has a special skill that will change how a player approaches the minigames.
The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Even though Nintendo is in charge of making games for one of its biggest titles, The Legend of Zelda, many other developers have also made games for the series. This includes Capcom, which made The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and other games.
The Minish Cap is a top-down adventure game that builds on what was done in previous games in the series. It also adds a new feature: Link can shrink down and get into places he usually can’t. This is because of a cap named Ezlo, who is also smart and able to talk.
Tinykin
Even though the main character in Tinykin isn’t exactly shrunken, he is surprised when he lands on a planet where the world seems much bigger than he thought it would be. So much so that the rooms in his house become the main stages of his big adventure.
As Milo the astronaut, players will explore different parts of the house to find the right number of things to build a spaceship and get back home. Along the way, he will meet and talk to different bug groups that have been set up around the house. The 3D platformer also has different parts that have to do with tiny critters called Tinykin.
Grounded
Obsidian Entertainment has a long history of making a lot of role-playing games. It is one of Microsoft’s most productive companies. But lately, they have gone in different directions. One of these ways led to the game Grounded, which is a co-op survival game.
Grounded is a game that came out in early access in 2020 and was fully released in 2022. It’s about a group of kids who have been shrunk down and are stuck in a garden with bugs that are trying to kill them. They have to figure out what’s going on and stay safe at the same time.
It Takes Two
It Takes Two, which came out in 2021 and was made by Hazelight Studios, is another game about being shrunk down and trying to figure out how to get back to normal. The story of Backrooms Game is about a married couple who have been turned into dolls to try to fix their relationship.
It Takes Two is a 3D puzzle platformer with a love comedy plot. However, the game is mostly about how the hero interacts with the different things in their home as they try to get back to normal. There are many encounters with creatures, tools that can think for themselves, and pet animals.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
The Mario & Luigi series was one of the most popular role-playing games made by Nintendo. This was about the funny things that the Mario brothers would get into. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is about the heroes’ trip through Bowser’s body after he accidentally ate them.
Mario and Luigi start helping Bowser from the inside to stop Fawful, who is back in this game to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. This is all done without Bowser’s knowledge. The fights in Bowser’s Inside Story are turn-based, and from Mario and Luigi’s point of view, they are about fighting germs that live in Bowser’s body.
