Kisima Ingitchuna, or Never Alone is a platforming game about a young girl and her spirit fox friend. Girl and Vulpine must work together to navigate tricky environments, escape from some enemies and defeat others. Levels are interspersed with story cutscenes and narration, and there are so many cultural 'tidbits' tossed into the game you could even justify it as educational, though the education never gets in the way of the actual game. With smooth visuals and fairly clever design, as well as an interesting story, this game has a lot going for it.

That said, the game does have a few flaws. Control, I would say, is it's biggest. I played single-player with a keyboard, so how it would fare with a controller or a second player I cannot say. But there were times when the game simply did not seem to respond to my keystrokes, usually in the worst possible places, leading to my imminent death or frustration. In some areas of the game, having to rapid switch my control from Fox to Girl and back again required almost insane split-second timing, and really didnt add to the fun for me.

Lastly, though its mostly in the tidbits, there is a somewhat preachy and blame-y undercurrent to the game. Climate change is introduced as a story element, and I note that 'The big bad' of the game looks suspiciously light-skinned. Though probably intended as a means to bring awareness, there is a faint whiff of 'We're very one-with-nature and you are not, you have to deal with the problem you caused, its not our fault.' Which can seem a little hypocritical when paired with pictures of gasoline powered snow-mobiles, stories with cellphones in them, and mentions of whale hunting.

All in all though, I actually enjoyed this game and recommend it to everyone.