Dungeons of Hinterberg is a delightful little puzzle - I hesitate to use the word - platformer dungeon-m-up set in the Alps.

It’s a sight-seeing tour with the occasional Austrian goblin to whack-a-mole and conveniently marked ledges to climb while solving puzzles.

The stunning cell-shaded graphics and colourful design not only make it a pleasant environment to run around in, but surprised me with sweeping vistas and some gorgeous backgrounds begging to be snapped on a polaroid.

And of course I obliged by gleefully messing around with the robust photo mode features.

The world is likewise brimming with characters and stuff to do.

The gameplay loop is divided into two sections. You start the day by selecting an area to explore where you can find and beat dungeons, relax in designated spots or simply pick the flowers and bugger off back to town.

There’s no real sense of urgency, which adds to the relaxing nature of the game. Sure, the days always count up, but at no point is the game going to smack you for having spent 20 days making snow angels or riding the ski lift up and down for fun.

This is also the case with the dungeons. You’re free to complete these at your own pace and can - to some degree - decide in which order to complete them. The game is a stickler for forcing you to complete the first dungeon of an area before you’re able to do the rest (to serve as a sort of tutorial on the magic you get, presumably), and there’s a minimum of dungeons to complete before you can enter the boss arenas. But otherwise the game is unlikely to put its foot down and force you to walk the intended route.

Combat isn’t anything to write home about, but I quite enjoyed most of it. Enemies die in satisfying splashes of goo and the boss fights were all interesting in their own way. It’s sometimes a bit tiresome with forced enemy arenas that seem to go on forever, but overall functional and fun.

The second part is where you do your shopping, hang out with people to build up relationships or just spend time by yourself.

Hanging out with certain characters unlocks unique charms, abilities and gear by levelling your relationship with them. While doing solo activities like rowing a boat or relaxing at the spa is good for raising your stats.

Loot is strewn all across the maps and dungeons, with only a handful of chests put in more obscure places. Most of which contained the dungeon’s commemorative coin. Which only served as a little collectible to unlock outfits.

Despite my gripes with the lack of value vs. difficulty to find… It is good to see a game not hide its cosmetics behind DLCs, packs or microtransactions.

Controls can be a bit awkward to grasp. I personally started missing the jump button when Luisa was stopped dead in her tracks by small pebbles on the road.

Lacking any sort of aerial control also meant that platforming was generally an idle experience. Ledges you can grab onto are clearly indicated and jumping from point A to B may as well be a fixed animation with how little I had to pay attention. You can jump off into a gaping pitfall, but you’d likely be aiming for it anyway.

It’s not so much exploring the levels, more like steering Luisa along a rail that sometimes lets you pick an alternate direction.

Although the game isn’t as much of a sandbox as it could’ve been, I genuinely enjoyed Dungeons of Hinterberg.