FGC #725 A Short Hike

The Rorschach test was invented in 1921. You likely understand the basic concept: a “random” ink blot is described by someone, and their own subjective interpretation can reveal objective psychological truths. But, while the Rorschach test was popularized by noted hottie Dr. Hermann Rorschach, the practice appears to be significantly older. Leonardo da Vinci (1500’s) and Botticelli (even earlier) wrote of methods similar to the Rorschach test, and “Klecksography” was noted as integral to a game with Rorschach-like rules in the 1800’s.

So, to get something a little more modern going, let’s replace Rorschach tests with a videogame. How does “Just play A Short Hike” work for you?

Go on, run through A Short Hike. It is, basically, a Zelda game that runs for about an hour. Or longer! We’ll get into that! But go ahead and put the computer/tablet/phone down, go play A Short Hike, and then come back to this article. Don’t worry! This site has been around for a decade! It will be here when you get back.

Okay, played A Short Hike? Great! Now let’s see what’s wrong with you.

Note: This article is for entertainment purposes only. Please do not take psychiatric advice from a videogame blog. That would be crazy.

You “just beat” A Short Hike

A Short Hike is a lil’ adventure game. You are a happy (maybe miserable) little bird person, and you have to take a short hike up a mountain. Easy peasy! You start off with some gliding strength (what with being a bird), and you must collect golden feathers to power additional skills like mid-air, extra jumping (it would be “double jumping”, but you can perform a lot more than a double), climbing, or running. Actually, unlocking running requires a whole extra task, which brings us to our next matter: there are NPCs all over the place, and they have issues. Solve problems, get rewards. Basic Zelda nonsense here. You even get a shovel! Anywho, you are quickly presented with a gamey goal (you must collect seven golden feathers to complete the hike), and a combination of exploration and NPC assistance will guide you to that objective. Then there is a “final challenge” where you must deftly utilize your collected feathers (and said challenge is easier the more feathers you have in reserve), and then you get to the top. The end.

It’s like forty minutes, and that’s a game. That’s all it has to be! Have some fun, play around in the world, get what you want, and move on. Maybe you like one cute animal critter more than another and play their individual minigames. Maybe you get into the surveying, and find your feathers through island exploration. Whatever the case, you reach your ultimate goal, and then call it a day.

“That was nice,“ you say before moving onto something else.

What this says about you: This is a perfectly reasonable way to play a videogame. You are sane.

You never beat A Short Hike, and just play around

An equally valid response to A Short Hike would be to ignore the hike, and simply enjoy the world. This is what it is all about, right? Claire, our protagonist, wants to climb to the peak of the mountain because it is the only place with cell phone reception. While the ending reveals that Claire has a noble reason for trying to catch a few bars, the initial implication of Claire’s quest is that she is one of those dang kids and their phones. And look at this great big world she could be exploring outside of a handheld device! There is so much more out there than a chance to check your TikToks, Claire!

And you, player, can be the guiding force in forcing Claire to have a good time. Play around, dig up some dirt, see if you can make that jump, play volleyball: whatever! You have a “real” goal, but that goal is always going to be there. There is no falling moon or apocalypse thou must avert here, just a kid at a campground. Have fun with it! All the world’s a stage, and you are merely a bird with a stick. Find a reason to use that stick!

This is a game! There may be an arbitrary goal, but have fun in the way you want to have fun! That’s what life is all about!

What this says about you: Playing games in a game is normal! Totally sane!

You beat A Short Hike, and immediately see how quickly you can do it again

A Short Hike is short. In fact, if you are used to 40-hour epics, you may be downright surprised at how quickly you can roll these credits. And, to be absolutely clear, this is not a “the end… ?” or bad ending situation: you beat A Short Hike, and you beat A Short Hike. There are clearly more things to do if you were paying the tiniest bit of attention to the proceedings, but A Short Hike makes no attempt to overtly encourage a new game plus or otherwise say “get back out there”.

So, naturally, some people are going to try to get back out there.

Speed has always been an obvious goal in any given videogame. From the moment Donkey Kong first kidnapped Pauline, mankind has felt the need to determine just how quickly that damsel can be undistressed. A Short Hike is a game with a goal, and there are multiple ways to achieve that goal. So there must be an optimum way, right? The closest golden feathers? The fastest sidequests? Earning abilities and items that only make you go faster? There must be answers to these questions, and you can be the one to discover them. How quickly can you take a short hike? What is the shortest hike?

What this says about you: This is a sane reaction, but things are starting to get dicey. Try not to overoptimize your bird person/life, as that can lead to breakdowns when things do not work out how you would like.

You beat A Short Hike, and you must solve everyone’s problems

A Short Hike takes place in a world. There is “stuff” lying around, but most of your goals will come from people walking around. And you can acknowledge that this is a game where non-playable characters will tangibly reward you for undertaking their quests while also noting that you are helping the denizens of this campground. Whether you are retrieving headbands or forking your cash over to a feather-scalper, you are ultimately aiding these people in this world. This isn’t an epic RPG: you are not the sole person in the universe that can retrieve 50 wolf pelts for some cold guy in a far-off cave, but you could brighten the day of some kid collecting seashells. And there are a lot of people around! You could spend all day just helping people!

And… Well… Don’t overdo it. A Short Hike is clearly constructed so you can beat the game without even seeing all of the NPCs, left alone solving all of their problems. It is equally valid to complete the minimum or maximum. If you feel the need to “save everybody”, you can do it, but please keep it to campgrounds, and do not go down the path of becoming the demiurge.

What this says about you: You are overflowing with empathy. And be careful with that! There is a big, scary world out there, and very few people will give you a new pair of shoes just because you granted them temporary psychological validation. Understand that helping everyone is a noble goal, but one that comes with many perils. Try to preserve your sanity through it all.

You beat A Short Hike 100%

NPCs are just NPCs, and they are only one part of this world. Solve their problems. And after that? Did you find every coin? Treasure chest? Explore every cave? Trade every fish? Extinguish the campfires? Do you even know how to extinguish the campfires? A Short Hike launched with an ending that recounted your feats, and then added clearly-defined achievements/trophies for the console versions. Don’t you want to bolster your gamer score? Don’t you want everyone to know that you mastered A Short Hike? Don’t you want validation that you did everything?

And if this is how you approached A Short Hike, just go ahead and go for an actual short hike. Get some air. Go play with a puppy. This is a cool, short game! Let it be short! Yes, enjoying something means you want to get the most out of it, but let it breathe! Enjoy it for what it is! Not for absolutely everything in there! And besides, shoveling every patch of sand is going to take all day!

What this says about you: Maybe see a therapist. At the very least, get on some medications for the obsessive-compulsive disorder. You’ll be happier not finding all those shells! I swear! And if you are the type to assume the game is lying and there must be even more things to find in this game? Buddy, I don’t know what to tell you.

You played A Short Hike because a friend recommended it to you, and then you wrote a thousand words about it

This article exists because some friends were passing around a meme that looked a little like this:

So the original version of this image being passed around online was a modified version of a meme intended for comics, and created by “League of ComicGeeks”. Since the videogame version still had semi-transparent comic books in the background, I just made a new one.

And then occasional Xenogears judge Bongo recommended A Short Hike. I did not play this game before his recommendation, and then I wrote an article about it. I plan on writing an additional eleven articles throughout the rest of the year based on eleven other recommendations. We have a cool format going here…

Given the time it takes to play these games and then compose essays about them, I have once again increased my workload thousandfold.

What this says about you: If this is how you approach videogames, you have the insanity of a manatee. The people in white coats will be here shortly.

FGC #725 A Short Hike

• System: Initially just PC/Mac/Linux, but Nintendo Switch a year later, and then Playstation 4 and Xbox One a year after that.
• Number of players: Claire is left to her lonesome.
• Favorite Little Dude: Parkour racing!
• I don’t have much to say: I’m sorry, A Short Hike is short. It’s good! It’s fun! I… do not have many bullet points to add.
• Goggle Bob Fact: This is the second game I have featured within a month that prominently features “being sad about your mom”. Third, if you count Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire (which I don’t).
• Did you know? In 2022, Designer/Programmer/Artist Adam Robinson-Yu released a 99-player option that was supposed to be a battle royale mode. It was also supposed to be an April Fools’ Day joke. But I want it now!
• Would I play again: Despite my claims that it may be a sign of insanity, I will likely play A Short Hike again to find more baubles and beads along the way. It is a very simple, pick up and play Zelda-alike, and sometimes you want a version of that that is not 10,000 hours long.

What’s next? Well, Animal Crossing seems to be back in the news, so maybe we can invite Villager to the Smash Bros. Challenge. Please look forward to it!