REVIEW: ‘Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth’ Is Filled With Emotional Depth

When I took Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth, I did it because the main character is cute. Having only known Moomintroll through osmosis (memes and general plushies in stores), I came into this review period not expecting much. “It’s a kid’s game,” I thought. But Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth’s unique brand of melancholic sweetness is rich with emotion and offers players moments of depth that develop the story into something more than you’d expect. 

Developed by Hyper Games and published in partnership with Kakehashi Games, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is inspired by Tove Jansson’s beloved stories. The developer’s second time adapting Jansson’s world since 2024’s Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, Winter’s Warmth offers a more somber take on the young hippo, his anxieties, and the circle of life. Throughout the game, you play as the titular Moomintroll, also known as Moomin, as he navigates a world he wasn’t supposed to wake up in. 

A spiritual successor to Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth opens with a mistake. When Moomin wakes up early from his winter hibernation, he finds himself completely alone for the first time ever. But with the cold winter wind, Moomin’s journey is even harder as he waits for his parents to wake up. 

Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth embraces the cold of winter. 

In a world he doesn’t recognize, Moomin helps the other snufkins find a place to keep warm. With the familiar landscape of Moominvalley covered by the Lady of the Cold’s snow, the harsh reality of the cold is something that the little hippo learns quickly. It’s this moment that added depth to Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth, because it handled death.

As Moomin attempts to follow a small squirrel into the snow, he quickly learns that the Lady of the Cold takes life after a brief conversation meant to help him understand the cycle of life. This moment changes Moomin from initially seeking someone to take care of him to a hippo who learns the importance of caring for others rather than himself.

The core game loop is solving puzzles and quests while exploring in the Nordic winter. With a hand-illustrative animation style, every environment in the game, even when in the wide-open snow, is layered with elements that speak to the world’s life. One of the smallest elements of the Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth, which showcases the developer’s artistic care, is that the little hippo leaves tracks in the snow.

A simple game, by almost all counts, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth has emotional depth. 

While this adds depth to a 2D world, as little Moomin moves left to right and forward and backward through the environment, players can see exactly where they have been and where they haven’t. As you begin to take on more challenging puzzles and fetch quests, noticing your tracks does a lot to help you know where to go and what to do. Even when the instructions aren’t entirely clear on what to do next. 

The takeaway is, though, that this game is cold and approaches difficult subjects for younger ages, like shame, anxiety, or death, but it’s still cozy. The game’s title, Winter’s Warmth, is the perfect encapsulation of the joy and heart that radiate from it, especially as our titular character learns that he isn’t alone in Moominvalley. 

While some puzzles lack the visual depth to always show the way forward, their simplicity is more of a strength than a weakness. The overall approach to developing the environment and the characters you meet, with nearly every quest unlocking something new for you to clear a path you couldn’t go down before.

This Moomintroll’s mechanics balance simplicity with engaging environments, keeping all ages engaged.

Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth’s core controls, however, are simple one-button inputs that switch between different tools, your matches, and mittens. Exploring and interacting couldn’t be easier, but in that simplicity, it’s also easy to find joy in these mechanics. 

Additionally, the game features some small elements of platform navigation. While the game works scene by scene, changing as you move off the screen, often left or right, some moments of verticality are executed so well that the game’s simplicity is almost something that you forget. Maybe it’s the adorable hippo that has the impact, but it’s honestly thoughtful game design. 

Because navigation and traversal are elements of the gameplay that take more thought, engagement never wanes as you play. A story-driven title first and foremost, the small moments of mechanical depth always felt like a refreshing moment to lock in and focus on, rather than just wandering the wilderness, looking at the gorgeous, painterly landscapes.

This also becomes a welcome development once darkness takes a place in the gameplay beyond the game’s opening, in the safety of your house. Nature is a dangerous place, but the game never pushes into outright fear; it casts it as something always possible, with Moomin growing braver as the story continues. The tension always just edges into discomfort, no more than the climax of a Disney-animated film. 

Still, the game’s mechanics are never too complicated to understand or master, making the experience one that clearly targets younger players. The appeal for all ages is immediately apparent from the subject matter, with elements to teach a child who identifies. Additionally, the adults that Moomin meets and learns from also give parents a character element that resonates.

And if you’re an adult with no children or somewhere in the wide age ranges in between, the emotional depth that the story offers gives you every reason to explore, learn, and be excited for the short game. This is because the way that you develop relationships with the townsfolk of Moominvalley is heartfelt in just about every way. 

Moomin’s journey from fearful to thoughtful is a journey through a community that works for all ages.

Darkness, light, the cold, and the warmth of all things come into play throughout the game’s interactions and wider folkloric storytelling. Throughout the game, you work to gather everyone in your home as your parents hibernate, keeping them warm until the winter passes.

To do so, you have to make them comfortable with you and your help. Which can come in the form of finding a child, helping someone overcome shame from her own self-consciousness with a makeover, and more. The game’s dialogue hits comedy extremely well. Like other elements of the game, it strikes a balance between humor that suits younger children and gives adults enough to chuckle at without ever breaking the game’s all-ages focus.

As a game, this title is clearly aiming toward younger audiences. That said, it also reaches young audiences new to Moomintroll while offering a special nostalgic hit for parents or anyone of any age. If anything, even if you haven’t engaged with the Nordic character, the kindness on display is something that anyone would be nostalgic for. 

Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is about how small acts of kindness can drive out the cold and the fear that comes with it. It’s about opening your door and asking someone how you can help. While Moomin starts the game as a scared child, he discovers the warmth and joy that community can bring, but only when brought together through kindness. 

Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is available now on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch (with Switch 2 upgrade), and PC.