Wandersong: the 2018 puzzle-platformer where the verb is sing, not strike — by the dev who later made Chicory
Greg Lobanov before Chicory. A platformer whose verb is sing, not strike. $19.99 buy-once on Switch/PS4/Xbox/PC, ~12 hours, colour-blind and deaf accessible, no IAP. IGF 2019 Excellence in Narrative nominee.
Greg Lobanov (studio Wishes Unlimited — "Greg Lobanov & friends"). Music by Greg Lobanov + Gordon McGladdery. Engine GameMaker Studio. Released 27 Sep 2018 on macOS / Windows / Switch; PS4 22 Jan 2019; Xbox One 6 Dec 2019. Publisher Humble Bundle / Humble Games. ESRB E10+ with the only descriptor "Fantasy Violence." 10-12 hours runtime; 150+ characters; "fully accessible to color-blind and deaf players" per the official Xbox / Steam product copy. Steam Overwhelmingly Positive 96% / 1,888 English (2,158 total). OpenCritic Mighty tier 84 / 85% recommend / 43 critics. Metacritic PC 82 / Switch 82 / PS4 79. IGF 2019 Excellence in Narrative nominee plus honorable mentions for Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Excellence in Visual Art, and Excellence in Audio. Greg Lobanov went on to win the BAFTA Best Family Game in 2021 with Chicory: A Colorful Tale. Inspired by his 5,000-mile bike trip across the US, "Nerds Across America." $19.99 one-time across every platform; no subscription, no DLC, no IAP.
How we got to 78
The Play Score is a weighted average: Fun ×0.25, Learning ×0.3, Safety ×0.25, Value ×0.2. Anything below 60 on Safety caps the total at 70.
What parents wrote vs. what their kids did
Quotes are sourced from public App Store, Google Play, and Reddit reviews captured during research. Reviewer handles shown verbatim where the platform makes them public; we never invent quotes or named children.
""One of the few games to ever make me laugh while crying" (not east, 127 helpful). "I still cannot bring myself to uninstall it" (Hidekund, 100). "In Act 4, you can pet and feed the dog" (Blahblahblah42, 93). "i cried in front of my son" (cjbtlr, 59)."
Steam top-rated positive reviews (not east, Hidekund, Blahblahblah42, cjbtlr, Jelly)· steam_review""Some parts drag on forever" (AyMeN, 90, 20.9 hrs). "By no standards is this game deep" (Oncus, 35). "Ruined by bugs and unoptimisations" (myakhie, 10). "How this got Overwhelmingly Positive baffles me" (limelight1210, 22). "Gameplay is absolute trash" (MouseWithBeer, 27)."
Steam top NEGATIVE reviews (AyMeN, Oncus, myakhie, limelight1210, MouseWithBeer — contrarian)· steam_reviewWhat's good, what's not
- ✓ESRB rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+. Only descriptor is "Fantasy Violence." No IAP. No ads. No subscription. No DLC. $19.99 once on every storefront — Steam, Switch eShop, Xbox, PSN — since 2018.
- ✓The singing mechanic is the entire conflict-resolution vocabulary — no strike, no slash. Per the Lootpots review: "flicking the right stick will bring up a colourful wheel split into eight segments. Each segment represents a musical note." Sustained for the full 10-12 hour run.
- ✓"Fully accessible to color-blind and deaf players!" per the official Xbox and Steam product copy. Singing puzzles cue with both color AND shape, so the puzzle floor does not rely on color or audio alone. Rare in the indie kids-puzzle shelf.
- ✓IGF 2019 nominated for Excellence in Narrative; honorable mentions for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Excellence in Visual Art, and Excellence in Audio — four IGF acknowledgements in one cycle.
- ✓Greg Lobanov is the developer who later won the BAFTA game award for Best Family Game in 2021 with Chicory: A Colorful Tale. Wandersong is the precursor to that win — the family-game craft is already on display here.
- ✓Critic chorus on emotional honesty. Destructoid 9.0 (Brett Makedonski): "the most emotionally satisfying game I've played in 2018." Nintendo Life 9/10 (Ollie Reynolds): "Pitch perfect." CGMagazine 9 (Jordan Biordi): "touched my heart."
- ✓Steam Overwhelmingly Positive — 96% of 1,888 English reviews positive (2,158 total). OpenCritic Mighty tier 84 / 85% recommend / 43 critics. Metacritic PC 82, Switch 82, PS4 79. Switch user score 8.2 across 59 ratings.
- ✓Cross-platform parity — the same 10-12 hour single-player game on Steam (Win/macOS), Switch, PS4, Xbox One. Single-player only. Xbox cloud saves on the Xbox build. Households play on whatever console they already own.
- ✓Greg Lobanov's stated thesis carries the design: "the bard's success is that despite being small and powerless, they communicate, bringing people together to solve bigger problems than themselves." Inspired by his 5,000-mile bike trip across the US, "Nerds Across America."
- ✓Long-tenure user voice. Steam top-helpful five-star from "not east" (127 helpful, 14.9 hrs): "one of the few games to ever make me laugh while crying." From "Hidekund" (100, 12.6 hrs): "I still cannot bring myself to uninstall it." From "cjbtlr" (59, 5.1 hrs): "i cried in front of my son."
- —CONTRARIAN: puzzle-difficulty floor is shallower than a puzzle-first buyer expects. Five verified Steam top-helpful negatives (AyMeN 90, Oncus 35, myakhie 10, limelight1210 22, MouseWithBeer 27) converge on "drag on forever" / "by no standards is this game deep" / "you literally can't fail."
- —ESRB E10+ is the floor. Thematic register is heavier than the paper-cut art suggests — depression, mortality, the antagonist is the prophecy's "Hero." With a co-piloting adult comfortable holding those themes, the floor drops to about 7+; below that, the writing is writing past the kid.
- —English text-only on every storefront. Steam interface / full audio / subtitles all "English"; Nintendo eShop "American English"; Xbox listed at "1 supported language." A non-English household needs a co-piloting adult to read the text aloud across the whole 10-12 hour run.
- —Critic recognition was a chorus of nominations rather than wins. The IGF Excellence in Narrative was a NOMINATION, not a win; Paste's "9th best Switch game of 2018" was a list slot. No Game Awards, no BAFTA — the BAFTA came three years later for Chicory.
- —Bug / glitch reports surface in a minority of negative Steam reviews — myakhie (10 helpful, 20.6 hrs): "ruined by bugs, glitches and unoptimisations, almost to the point of being unfinishable." Minority voice, but worth knowing before a household commits to the run.
What your kid is actually practising
Text-heavy dialogue across 10-12 hours of single-player narrative — English text-only on every storefront. A 7+ kid with reading help, or a 9+ solo reader, gets sustained literacy practice. The dialogue is impishly informal but expects the kid to follow a long arc with named characters.
The DANCE BUTTON ("dance anytime, anywhere!") is the official feature line — Wandersong gives the kid a no-objective expressive surface alongside the puzzle objectives. Per Greg Lobanov: "the bard's success is that despite being small and powerless, they communicate, bringing people together."
The bard meets 150+ characters and the singing puzzles work by the kid inferring what the character on screen needs. The narrative depth is real — Destructoid: a scene in which the bard "forces a painful smile for his mother" was named "heartbreaking and comforting all at the same time." Practicing inference about other people's inner states is the loop.
The central design choice is that conflict resolves in song, not violence. Per Nintendo Life: "it's a platform game that disregards the usual violent means of combat for a more laid back approach." The kid practices regulating in conflict by harmonizing — across a full ten-to-twelve hour arc.
Single-player game by design — Xbox capabilities list "Single player." But the in-fiction social loop (150+ characters, friendship arcs with the witch Miriam) is itself a model of social repair: the bard makes friends across an arc that resolves through cooperation, not combat.
The whole input vocabulary is the eight-segment musical-note wheel — pitched at the kid as a rhythm-and-melody practice rather than reflex timing. Per Lootpots: "each segment represents a musical note." 150+ characters across the run mean the kid practices listening for the right pitch in many contexts.
A healthy way to play it
About 45 minutes per session
