The legacy of Little Nightmares is instantly recognisable. Its unsettling visual language, with tiny protagonists navigating oversized environments filled with grotesque figures, has become iconic in the horror platforming genre. Reanimal may not officially exist within that universe, but with the creative team behind Little Nightmares II returning to the formula that made those games so memorable, it feels very much like the spiritual successor fans (myself included) have been waiting for.
In fact, it often feels closer to a true follow-up than last year’s Little Nightmares 3, which arrived from a different development team. Reanimal captures everything that made the earlier titles special while pushing the concept further, delivering a more active and mature horror-adventure across truly haunting environments.
Across a roughly five-to-seven-hour campaign, you explore a series of striking locations: cinemas filled with eerily motionless figures watching flickering screens, fog-covered seas crawling with slithering creatures, abandoned houses packed with childlike mannequins, spiralling towers, and sprawling farmland.
It’s all extremely creepy and atmospheric, which is an insane experience to have when you are gaming on the go on the Switch 2. There are many memorable moments here, one in particular even sees you riding through darkened streets on a school bus. Each location reinforces the game’s central theme of survival, where simply reaching the next checkpoint can feel like an achievement.
Unlike the Little Nightmares games that came before it, Reanimal also leans a little further into action. Combat encounters appear throughout the journey, alongside sequences involving vehicles and several large-scale boss fights. These moments provide a welcome variety without overshadowing the tense atmosphere that defines the experience. Of all the game releases so far this year, Reanimal is currently sitting pretty at the top of my list of experiences I won’t soon forget.
A Mystery Indeed
Atmosphere and mystery remain the driving forces behind the game’s storytelling. Much like the Little Nightmares series, Reanimal deliberately leaves much of its narrative open to interpretation. What you don’t know is often far scarier than what you do. It can be a challenge to get this balance right, but when it hits, it hits and gets this balance just right.
Even after completing the game, I’m not entirely certain I fully understand every narrative beat, and that lingering ambiguity feels intentional. It’s rare for a game to stay with you long after you have finished the main campaign, and this definitely delivers that experience.
The story begins with one child discovering another drifting alone at sea. Together they travel to a bleak, fog-covered island in search of their missing friends. The two characters can be controlled in co-op, though I played primarily solo for this review.
It doesn’t take long before the pair encounter their first antagonist. Early sequences revolve around stealth and survival, swiftly moving to avoid a looming enemy’s glare, hiding behind boxes, or sprinting between safe spaces when the rumble of nearby washing machines masks your movement.
Progression generally follows a simple structure: rescue another friend, defeat a boss encounter, then move into the next unsettling area. Beyond that framework, however, the story slowly builds toward a reveal that cleverly ties back to the game’s title.
Small gameplay changes make a big difference.
Gameplay in Reanimal is relatively simple on the surface. Much of your time will be spent walking, climbing, and navigating environmental puzzles. However, several additions help expand this tide and true gaming formula.
The early sections of the game focus purely on stealth and escape, but before long, both protagonists acquire weapons: a crowbar and a knife. These allow players to fend off smaller enemies or distract larger threats. Some encounters also require throwing objects from a distance, forcing players to think carefully about positioning and timing.
Combat is tense because you only have a single hit before death. So angles and timing matter here, keeping encounters brief but engaging. Even the open-sea sections feature brief combat encounters, where you must fend off aggressive seagulls while navigating the water. There are a few puzzle elements to the game as well that allow you to twist and turn the camera to figure out how to get to the next area.
When it comes to boss fights, they typically revolve around a clear mechanic that you figure out early on, but they remain memorable throughout, in particular, a mid-game encounter involving spears that stands out as one of the game’s highlights. Similar to Little Nightmares, Reanimal retains that sense of tension while finally allowing you to push back against the horrors around you.
It’s in the Details
Some of the most memorable moments in Reanimal come from the smallest interactions. Overturning a bucket of popcorn and watching it scatter across the floor of an abandoned cinema. Discovering a random playground and sliding down the slide. These environmental interactions aren’t essential to progression, but they bring personality to the world and showcase the team’s attention to detail.
The characters themselves also feel slightly more developed than those in previous games. They appear a little older and even exchange occasional dialogue, a subtle change that adds a touch of humanity to an otherwise bleak setting. It feels like the developers are aware of the shift in the gaming landscape, and perhaps the feedback from Little Nightmares 3 played a role here. Every frame of this game feels meticulously detailed and lovingly crafted; the fact that it runs and looks this good is pure game development wizardry.
A Bigger World
One of the most interesting evolutions in Reanimal is the sense of scale. There are the usual small characters set against a large background, a style the devs are known for. So while they aren’t breaking the mould here, the massive uptick in both graphical and performance is noticeable.
That being said, there are familiar elements like collectible masks that clearly nod to the Little Nightmares formula, and new mechanics that expand the world in interesting ways.
You can set sail through open waters by boat or drive an ice cream truck along a dark, deserted road, which adds a broader sense of exploration to the adventure.
Even running through what appears to be an enormous farmland field creates the illusion of a much larger world beyond the game’s immediate path. If the game is a success and sequels are planned, it won’t be hard to expand upon the world presented here. It does a great job of balancing that feeling of openness with the suffocating tension of horror, a feat that is no easy task, but Reanimal handles it extremely well.
Performance
I played the game on the Nintendo Switch 2, where performance was excellent in both handheld and docked modes. Given the game’s intentionally dark visual design, frame rate and visual fidelity rarely feel like major concerns, but the experience remained smooth throughout. Load times between deaths were the only minor frustration, though they never significantly disrupted the flow of play.
As more third-party developers begin launching titles on Switch 2 the same day as the other major platforms, Reanimal, alongside other recent games like Resident Evil: Requiem, stands as a great example of how well those releases can perform and solidify Switch 2’s position as a console that can stand toe to toe with the PS5 and PC releases.
Final Thoughts
Reanimal is the clearest spiritual successor yet to the original Little Nightmares games. It maintains the same eerie visual identity and unsettling tone while delving deeper into darker themes, expanding gameplay with combat, larger environments, and cinematic boss encounters.
It may be a relatively short experience, but its creativity, atmosphere, and striking world design leave a lasting impression.
There are many opportunities here for a perfect, memorable in-game screenshot. It almost warrants another playthrough just to gawk at how incredibly beautifully detailed it is.
For fans of the genre, and particularly those who loved the Little Nightmares games, Reanimal delivers a haunting, memorable adventure that proves the original creators still know exactly how to craft a true nightmare. It is a harrowing and sombre experience that stands out as one of the best so far in 2026.
FOUR AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Amazing story with dual characters; Engaging combat, exploration and puzzle-solving; Visuals and performance on Switch 2 hardware.
Lowlights: Length, could definitely be a few hours longer
Developer: Tarsier Studios
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, Windows PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on Nintendo Switch 2 with a code provided by the publisher.
Featured header image also provided by the publisher.
