‘Moomin: Midsummer Madness’ Is a Charming Nod to Classic Point-and-Click Adventures
I absolutely adored my time with Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth–it was my introduction to everything Moomintroll, and I was hoping to get a chance for more. Moomin: Midsummer Madness is a lot different than the thoughtful, poignant Winter’s Warmth. It’s a direct adaptation of the book Midsummer Madness by Tove Jansson. And it’s a point-and-click adventure game, a subgenre that holds a special place in my heart from playing so many LucasArts SCUMM games back in the day.
In this outing, you play as the soft-spoken and well-meaning Moomintroll and the irrepressible and mischievous Little My. What starts off as an adventure at the height of summer becomes a bit of a whimsical disaster epic as Moominvalley is flooded by a volcano, leaving Moomintroll and family literally afloat.
Eventually they come across a floating theatre, and have all sorts of adventures. It’s a delightfully cozy game that looks and plays like an interactive storybook, but with actual point-and-click puzzles–and the occasional minigame.
I really love the dynamic between Moomintroll and Little My, the two playable characters. They remind me a bit of Sam and Max–just more wholesome. You really control Moomintroll, and can use Little My to get to places and do things that Moomintroll can’t–or wouldn’t. It’s a fun dynamic, and a nice change to be controlling the playfully antagonistic Little My instead of being terrorized by her.
Point-and-click adventure games are known for their “moon logic” solutions, and Midsummer Madness does tend to veer towards that territory. The “use every item with every object” school of thought applies, though Midsummer Madness is much more forgiving than those old LucasArts games I’ve played.
While there is a fair amount of locations in Midsummer Madness, the game is divided into chapters–with locations only able to be visited during that chapter. That means you don’t have to worry about using an obscure item you got later in the game with that one puzzle you totally forgot about running into in the first few minutes of playtime.
However, Moomin: Midsummer Madness doesn’t get puzzle signposting and pacing totally right. My biggest complaint is that you have to revisit areas and have conversations with characters multiple times in the same chapter to get new things to happen. Sometimes there isn’t a clue that you will now be able to get X item because Y character is offering it now that you did Z action. Luckily, you can’t really ever be stumped with a hint system that helps get you unstuck.
While you’re adventuring along the floating theatre or before, you’ll run into minigames. These minigames are often easy and fun with low stakes. Even so, if you find yourself not liking that particular game–or are stumped by any particular minigame’s puzzle–you can just skip it and move on. There’s no penalty–you just move on and have fun doing something else.
It’s a beautiful game, with a lovely soundtrack. Its story, characters, and graphics are so cozy and wholesome it's like being wrapped in a blanket of good feelings. It doesn’t hurt that the game is actually quite good, with an entertaining story full of characters that translate well from book to video game because of their oddness. If you want something cozy, Moomin: Midsummer Madness is an absolute delight.
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