Petal Runner Preview - Pokemon Meets WarioWare

Petal Runner is a balm for the soul in the form of the best kind of nostalgia. It’s a cozy slice of life game where you deliver artificial pets. There’s also a mystery to be solved.

Petal Runner's Game Boy Visuals

My first impressions of Petal Runner were that it looked just like the Pokemon games of my childhood. That is absolutely true and by design, as I was told by Creative Director Brandon Greer, who said he always loved the look of Pokemon Red and wanted to do something inspired by it. 

Greer told me that he was always interested in pixel art and got into learning how to make it as a hobby. That turned into something more, which led to creating the art in Petal Runner. He even runs a YouTube channel with tutorials if you want to learn as well. 

There’s no battling, but there’s also no shortage of Hanapets to befriend along the way. Delivering and calibrating, sometimes coming to repair them by recalibrating, is the name of the game as you play Petal Runner. 

HanaPets come in all shapes and sizes, with their own unique personalities as well. There’s your HanaPet Kira, who is quite cat-like and has a lot to say, and I saw one that was a shark swimming through the air.  

Instead of battles, you’ll calibrate HanaPets for people as you deliver them. Those come in the form of a series of minigames that are very reminiscent of WarioWare. 

Each one only lasts a few seconds at most. For example, in one you have to land your parachute guy in the correct area. In another, you use a brush to clean up a dog quickly. 

A Big Map To Explore

Most of your time, though, will be spent traveling around the fairly large world of Sapphire Valley. Petal Runner will feature four distinct neighborhoods that you drive through and to on your motorcycle.  

Each neighborhood will have its own sort of color palette and distinct design, too. It's not just one big sprawling city that is sort of samey, but each neighborhood will have its own personality and look to it.

You'll have plenty of reason to travel in making deliveries, too, as there are a lot of secrets, sidequests, and side characters to befriend. Exploration is encouraged and rewarded, as just soaking in the world is the biggest appeal of these sort of games.

I was only given access to a small portion of one neighborhood in my demo, but it had so much for me to see and do. People were boundless, shops and buildings all over, and little paths that are slightly hidden were everywhere Greer said it was a blast to design the world and fill its spaces with a lot of fun interactable characters and items. 

One of the areas I had access to was a mall, full of stores I could walk into and interact with customers and shopkeepers. There were shops for music, HanaPets, accessories, and more. 

It was a great nostalgic trip to the Game Boy years of something like Pokemon, with an elevated pixel art that they can get away with on today's technology. A lot of charm was packed into not a lot of pixels.

Petal Runner Preview | Final Thoughts

I think Petal Runner is going to be the perfect game to sit back, relax, and just play. It’s something to vibe to, to soak in, and just be content to be immersed in its charming world.

Petal Runner was previewed at Summer Game Fest.