Summer in Mara Reviews
Summer in Mara is a nice chillout game you can take totally at your own pace, even if the lack of challenge and excitement will surely frustrate many players. It’s very much an ideal game for children or those who want to take a break from the stresses, fears, and pressures of modern life, which right now is very much understandable! Though I certainly didn’t feel thrilled or captivated playing it, I do anticipate returning periodically returning to the sweet, summery world of Mara from time to time when the cold cruel world is grinding me down under its relentless wheel!
Summer in Mara is a whimsical adventure that doesn’t require the player to micromanage their days. The balance of exploration, discovery, and farming-sim elements make this a charming way to spend an afternoon. Still, the repetition of it all will make long play sessions dull.
While Summer in Mara has a wholesome atmosphere that’s rarely broken thanks to an overwhelming effort placed towards style and presentation, there isn’t anything wholesome regarding the content consumed.
This is one of those titles that can be frustrating as it has so many pieces of the puzzle that work towards it being a great experience, but it can’t quite put them together in the right way...
Even with simple agriculture and without offering complex navigation, Summer in Mara is a refreshing title that, if it improves the experience of its hours and a few more worked mechanics, would be an excellent adventure for this summer.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Summer in Mara was a game I wanted to love, but its core designs around crafting and questing left me wanting. It’s a shame, as I think it could’ve been something truly magical with more time to cook and less reliance on fetch quests.
On its own, Mara in Summer is the perfect game if you have plenty of time and are not looking for a challenge.
While Summer in Mara is a game with a lot of heart; its gameplay is a bit too monotonous to be enjoyable for even diehard fans of games like Harvest Moon.
Summer in Mara reminds me of a mash-up between The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and My Time In Portia. It has a charming mixture of bright colors and whimsical music that encapsulates the world you are immersed within, in all of its child-like wonder.
There are a few small ways the developers could make great strides – full fast-travel, please! – and many more improvements that aren't quick fixes. I hope it gets there, though. As a farming simulation, Summer in Mara falls short, but dang if its sunny world and characters aren't pleasant to be around.
Summer in Mara is farming and crafting sim with a lovely message around sustainability. It features some beautiful Ghibli-esque visuals and strong character writing, but ultimately descends into endless, over-lapping fetch quests with a lack of direction that make it more of a chore than the relaxing experience it promises.
Summer in Mara can be endearing and sometimes evokes the spirit of better games like Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, and Wind Waker, but poor UI, confusing mechanics, and repetitive quest design harshes the game's mellow vibe. Perhaps Summer in Mara can be improved with updates, but for now, I'd only book myself on this island cruise at a discount.
Summer in Mara makes a great first impression with its pleasant visuals and laid-back music but ultimately fails to remain engaging for long due to repetitive quests, a hollow world and plenty of tedious mechanics
A pretty but average experience, Summer in Mara fails to set the world on fire due to some major gameplay flaws that fail to guide the player in even the most basic ways.
Instead thanks to everything from fetch quest repetition to a muddled interface, it's more of a wistful addition to the Switch library. The pleasant vibe of Koa's undiscovered world can't carry the whole game despite the best of intentions. If tweaks and improvements can clean up some of the menus, Summer in Mara could be better, but I worry even that won't make the repetition more enjoyable.
It’s a real shame that Summer in Mara subjects you to such monotony, because it’s a beautiful game. Its characters are delightful and its world is a joy to explore. The music, too, is wonderful, if slightly repetitive; some of those tuns will get well and truly stuck in your head. But there’s no looking past the fact that its core gameplay makes Summer in Mara a chore to play. It’s enjoyable in short bursts, at least to begin with, but being little more than everyone’s lackey doesn’t stay fun for long.
Koa and the charming world of Mara is enough to keep an eye on this one, but it’s too big with not enough depth and that makes Summer in Mara far from essential.
I wanted Summer in Mara to become a highlight. However, in the final game, soundtrack and the relaxed graphics are mostly the only things to convince. However, they cannot make you look away from the flaws in the gameplay and the lot of bugs. I hope that there'll be a patch soon that fixes at least the most severe.
Review in German | Read full review
For the rest of us who have been playing crafting and survival games for 10+ years, there is nothing in this game for us. For almost everything this game does well, there are other more complex games that do it just as well or better. I can tell lots of love was put into Summer in Mara, but there are some tweaks that need to be made to support the audience they seem to be going for.
"My sweet summer child."
Review in Finnish | Read full review