Wobbly Life Review

Anyone with young kids may very well have come across Wobbly Life via their kids’ YouTube watching; the likes of Unspeakable and Preston Plays offer up…content… that engages and appeals to the kids, often playing silly games or modes. One of these I’ve been subjected to over the years is indeed Wobbly Life, with my girls constantly asking if I could get them the game because of these YT players. So, with the game now in full release as opposed to early access, I relented and agreed to play with them. I went in with apprehension that it would not be for me at all, but I have been pleasantly surprised in the main at how fun it’s proven to be, even if there are elements that drive me mad at the same time. Turns out, without an annoying talking head in the corner of the screen there’s actually a decent game here after all… 

We can play in either solo or multiplayer modes, on and offline. I can’t say I’d highly recommend the former though – this is a game that demands at least one other player to really get enjoyment out of it. 

I hopped in with my youngest and at first could not get my bearings at all. The Wobbly of the title is immediately evident as our characters stumbles around, falling over at the lightest touch on a hard object. Think Totally Reliable Delivery Service or Human Fall Flat and you’ll know how it feels to control. The triggers raise each arm and let us grab objects or hold on for dear life, and this is our main way of getting anything done. Once we’ve created our character and played the tutorial we’re dropped into the open world and let loose. 

There are a plethora of mission markers on the map for jobs to complete, from taxi driver, to crop harvester, nuclear waste removal, fishing, and even dancing. Each one requires a different approach, but all rely heavily on the over the top physics to make every movement as much of a pain in the butt as possible, albeit in an often hilarious way. 

Take the nuclear waste mission for example; we have to grab five barrels, place them in the back of a truck (tricky enough), then drive it up and round a hill then down into a mine to dispose of it by feeding it to a monster (trickier as even a slight bump sends the barrels bouncing about and often out of the truck). Add in a tight time limit and rage/laughter follows as I’m getting shouted at by my daughter for nearly careening off of a cliff and dropping our cargo, all while she’s bouncing around in the back trying to hold on to everything. This is one of the simpler set ups too, with others requiring multiple people to take different parts of a task in order to get things done in time. The variety on offer is much more than I was expecting, and again, with another player or three, will no doubt get as many laughs as it will shouts of disdain.

The island is pretty large, and can be explored freely, so there’s always something to do, even if it’s just replaying jobs to gain even more money. This money is the reward for the jobs (naturally) but even collecting that isn’t as simple as you’d think. After a job, money bags drop at our feet, and it’s then up to us to drop it off at an ATM to bank it. I lost one of my first payments when my daughter crashed our helicopter into a building and while her bag fell to the ground, mine landed on a top floor window sill… She thought it was funny, at least…

Since its early access release the game has seen several updates, and with this 1.0 version we get a whole new area in the Space Station. Getting here requires $500 to buy a training licence, but thankfully this can be earned in game pretty quickly. Once earned, there’s a short tutorial/training sequence to go through before we can travel to space and explore in low gravity. 

There are unique jobs up there, from mining to asteroid defence and more, as well as a unique space credit currency to keep things separated from Earth. The low gravity makes the wobbly physics even more maddening at times, although the freer movement in the air sort of balances this out. I found jumping and floating everywhere easier to control than on foot. 

I think the main takeaway from finally playing Wobbly Life is that actually, it is quite a lot of fun with the kiddo, despite my preconceived notions of annoying YouTubers playing guff on their channels. It’s certainly not something I’d ever recommend solo, but with young kids or even on a beer’ed up evening with friends, there is a surprising amount of fun gameplay here. 

It’s not all roses though, and one thing that really got to me was bouts of input delay on Xbox. I’m playing on a Series X and found that there could be a good second or so delay on my inputs for long stretches of time for no real reason. When playing the other night, all was well for 20 minutes before the input delay started and I could barely walk in a straight line let alone complete a job. The game is on Game Pass and is also a Play Anywhere title, so I’ve played a few hours on PC too and didn’t encounter this issue once.

Conclusion

Bouts of input delay on Xbox ruin the experience, and it’s not something to play solo, but Wobbly Life, with co-op buddies, can be a surprising amount of fun. There’s a vast array of things to do, and the hilarity of the physics can make for some funny, rage-inducing moments.