Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth Demo Preview | A Delightfully Chilly Adventure

I'll be completely honest with you all. A few years ago, when I heard someone talking about Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, my first instinct was to say, "What the hell is a Moomin?" It wasn't until seeing the trailer for it that a flood of memories came to me in an instant, of growing up as a child in a Polish-American family, being shown cartoons of the show, and even having some of the picture books read to me by my Boppy (what we called my Grandmother). While playing the new 60-minute demo for the cozy winter adventure game Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth, which is launching on April 27th for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2, I felt like that kid again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ePphEutTJ8

The demo opens with our playable character Moomintroll, or Moomin for short, preparing to hibernate for the winter. During his long sleep, he dreams of his friends and the beautiful season of Spring that he desperately wants back. He gets woken up by the loud sound, and he decides to investigate. The first thing that struck me was just how gorgeous the visuals are. The characters and setting all have the feel of being cut out from the book and made for exploring the house very fun.

With Moomin exploring the noise in the dark, he moves around cautiously, being somewhat frightened of the situation. Very quickly, you find a box of matches that Moomin states should only be used with Moominmama and Papa, but this is an emergency. Once you strike a match, the room is filled with light, which not only showcases just how beautiful everything looks but also allows Moomin to move a little quicker now that he has light to guide him.

With Mama and Papa still sleeping, Moomin investigates a noise in the attic, which turns out to be a squirrel that quickly jumps out the window. Moomin decides to pursue the squirrel to get it to come back inside. Walking around outside and hearing the cold wintry wind whip around in my headphones made it feel like I was with him on this journey. Adding to the authentic crunching snow sounds, I had to grab a nearby blanket to warm myself up as I continued forward.

I can not begin to stress to you just how impressed I am with the level of detail present. Outside of the immersive audio display, walking through heavy snow felt slow and treacherous. When choosing to double back and walk in a path that you have already made, Moomin controls much more quickly without the friction of snow that is needed to traverse.

I want to keep the narrative moments from the demo quiet from here on out, so you can experience it yourselves in the demo, but after being introduced to our friend/neighbor Too-Ticky, we find mittens that allow the player to make snowballs. Snowballs are used to throw at hanging icicles that block off areas that you passed previously to access them on the way back home.

Everything that I got to experience in this demo is so wholesome and has a magical quality to it. It was super easy to become immersed in this world in such a short amount of time. If you are a fan of cozy adventures, Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth should be on your radar. Outside of the demo being available during Steam Next Fest, February 23rd to March 2nd, the full game launches on April 27th on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2.