Super Adventure Hand Review (Xbox Series X|S & PC)

Super Adventure Hand gives the five finger discount to an absurdly whimsical platforming adventure that is merely an arm’s length from being a comical affair with one too many fingers in the one single pie. And if you think I’m about to spend the next several minutes refraining myself from spouting out hand jokes at every opportune moment, then you’ve got another thing coming. Loan me an ear, and give me a hand. We’re about to finger waltz to the beat of this oh-so-ridiculous drum, friends.

It doesn’t take much to connect the dots with a game like Super Adventure Hand. Hell, if you can picture a severed hand and a wayward arm that just so happens to be on the other side of the world, then you’ll likely be able to predict this particular tale without having to sink into any other details. It’s a story that you know, well, like the back of your hand. A sentient hand sets out to find its arm, and the one in control—you, the finger-waggling puppeteer—guide it through various biomes and obstacles, with a total of fifty handcrafted levels standing between the wrist and the thumb. And if you think all of this sounds like fodder fit for a bad joke — it is. But it learns to laugh at itself, and that’s all that matters here. Don’t expect an emotional tale here, basically, because you definitely won’t find one.

While most of Super Adventure Hand is a bit of a doddle, the game does make an effort to up the ante with various challenges and physics-based puzzles. As the hand, you have the power to manipulate your palm and fingers to climb, vault, and rapidly sprint. But that’s essentially all that you’re doing here: taking a hand and guiding it through a trove of obstacles and platforming sequences, some of which require you to blitz through a fiery cesspit of rolling spikes, some of which task you with barreling across a neatly stacked cluster of stone blocks. And as I said, there are fifty stages to work through here, and so, you do have your fair share of creative work to marvel at here.

Arguably the greatest struggle that you’ll encounter in Super Adventure Hand is its physics. See, unlike your traditional platforming endeavor, the controls rely on your ability to flex your creative fingers — and all four of them, plus a thumb, naturally. Think I Am Bread, with the same prod-to-push each corner of the slice mechanic. It’s a similar situation here, only that you operate an entire hand to adjust your grip strength and other factors that affect your balance and general movement. Yes, it’s a pain in the backside to learn, but it’s also a lot of fun to master, believe it or not. That is, of course, providing that you can actually learn to wriggle your fingers.

In addition to the platforming shenanigans and the frequent uphill battle, Super Adventure Hand also features a customizable, well, hand. And by that I mean, you can equip your Thing-like protagonist with various gadgets and gizmos, like watches, rings, and even a slither of nail polish, if you so desire. Does any of this add weight to the overall experience? Not at all, no, but I appreciate the effort nonetheless. Does the addition of a bracelet automatically give you exclusive access to powers beyond your wildest imagination? Again, no, but it adds a little extra depth to the joke, and I think that’s what counts here. It might not be a hilarious joke, but it is nice to be able to tailor your fledgling acrobat to your own tastes, weirdly.

If you can excuse the lack of storytelling, as well as the occasional stale platforming obstacle, then you should be able to enjoy Super Adventure Hand for the lighthearted gimmicks that it brings to the table. It might not do anything special, but it does take a good joke and runs with it without thinking twice about the consequences. And if it was a half-baked platforming game with a joke and only a joke to flaunt, then I probably wouldn’t be able to recommend it. But it’s the little details here that make it oddly enjoyable. The level design is creative enough to pique your interest, and the physics-based gameplay provides enough depth to keep your fingers twiddling and your toes curdling.

All in all there’s a short yet gripping adventure to be had here. If you’re a fan of silly platforming gigs that refuse to take themselves too seriously, then there’s a chance that you’ll see the brilliance in its simplicity. It might lack a compelling narrative and an entire body of excellent characters, but for what it’s worth, Super Adventure Hand delivers what it set out to bring to the forefront of the genre: a comical excursion that can leave a temporary impression on the palm of your hand.

Verdict

Super Adventure Hand takes the finger-waggling joke of a childhood pastime to an unexpected precipice in the platforming world with a short yet oddly enjoyable tongue-in-cheek adventure that’s both humorous and entertaining. It might not deliver much more than a simple joke and a whole lot of canon fodder for a familiar platforming game, but with fifty handcrafted levels and a fully customizable hand, it does make for a pleasant experience with a surprising amount of weight to it. Maybe that’s worth the admission price, maybe it isn’t.

Suffice it to say that, if ridiculous platforming games like I Am Bread or Octodad: The Dadliest Catch are to your liking, then you should find a good enough reason to stick around for the short duration of Super Adventure Hand’s palm-sized tale. Again, it’s best not to expect a perfect work of art with stellar characters or plot twists here, because it falls short in almost all of these areas. Still, for the sake of finding a quick giggle and a physics-based challenge, I’d recommend giving it the benefit of the doubt and not, say, the back of your right hand.