Little Nightmares III Review

The first Little Nightmares was a cult classic puzzle platformer that stood out due to its visually striking art direction and imaginative premise. Players assumed the role of Six, a mysterious raincoat-clad little girl exploring the Maw, the enormous and nightmarish cruise ship for monstrously gluttonous adults. The doll-house style presentation and physics-based mechanics struck a chord with many a gamer, and the setting and story were ripe for speculation, keeping most talking about it until its sequel came out.

Little Nightmares II was a bigger and longer experience, casting players as Mono, a boy wearing a bag over his face who treks across the Pale City to a signal tower that seemingly distorts the world. It was a great sequel, but the developer, Tarsier, was acquired by Embracer, forcing Bandai Namco to task Supermassive Games to become the stewards of their horror adventure franchise. Is this new developer able to fill Tarsier’s shoes?

Little Nightmares III is about Low, a boy wearing a crow-like mask, and Alone, a girl in a hazmat suit with pigtails, who awaken in Nowhere, the surrealist and twisted world of connecting portals. Like in the prior entries, the story is very vague and told mostly through imagery and environmental mise en scène. There is no dialogue apart from indistinct ambient chatter or the calls of the two protagonists, and nothing is explained directly. The closest thing to a plot that Little Nightmares III has is that Low and Alone must escape from Nowhere by using shattered mirrors as portals to traverse increasingly dangerous locations, each with its bespoke gimmicks and set pieces.

The first two installments had excellent locations and theming to draw players deeper into their unsettling world. This entry is no different and is largely consistent. The first area is a desolate, haunted city of the dead filled with petrified husks, crumbling ruins, and a kaiju-sized baby. It’s the most visually distinct location and is unlike anything the series has seen before. The second area can be best described as a grotesque industrial candy factory run by a six-armed witch who might be using children as an ingredient. The factory feels right at home for the franchise and could be easily mistaken for the Maw.

After the trip to the candy store, Low and Alone go urban exploring in a chaotic, abandoned amusement park overrun by killer ventriloquist dummies and deceptive attractions. The final chapter has the duo trying to escape an asylum where monstrous doctors are experimenting on minds. Little Nightmares III largely backloads its major story developments, revelations, and connections to the prior games, making most of the adventure feel like filler. The structure for these games has always been episodic, but there was always a thematic throughline connecting everything. Little Nightmares III‘s levels are disjointed from everything the story builds up to, and a lot of it has to do with the emphasis on online-only co-op.

Fans wished Little Nightmares II had co-op because the game teased the idea by having Six be Mono’s AI partner who would help him out. What they forget is that Six wasn’t always with Mono. The story began with him alone, and when they met, it felt like there was a gradual bond and that the story developed, rising stakes when the shocking climax happened. Sometimes the story demanded they get separated, which created high and low moments for the protagonist, and it was a better game for it.

Little Nightmares III never separates Low and Alone because the co-op meta game requires that they stay together so that two players can experience the same thing. The result is the gameplay being a flat line of standard Little Nightmares-style set pieces, puzzles, and gimmicks without any surprises or developments. Unexpectedly, new gameplay ideas that are introduced get taken away very early and are never expanded upon. There is less emphasis on players interacting with AI-controlled threats in amusing stealthy ways; probably because programming one to deal with two players would break this too easily.

The visuals and art are as striking as prior entries, but there is a sense of “been there, done that”. The more evocative imagery is backloaded toward the end, with most of the experience feeling like it could have been DLC to Little Nightmares II. The version reviewed was the original Nintendo Switch port running on Nintendo Switch 2. These titles have always had strong art, and Supermassive Games has done a valiant effort at remaining consistent with the other entries. Even when running at subpar resolution, the art is strong enough to carry the experience.

This is a hazy and grungy game set in some unbearably dank and murky locations that will make one’s skin crawl. The rough and haggard resolution and muddy textures of the original Nintendo Switch version make a deliberately gross-looking game feel dirtier. Some LOD models appear in the background sometimes. It will obviously look much better on more powerful platforms, but for something that is punching way above its weight, it’s amazing how good it looks.

An even more egregious issue is how it robs players of any unlockables. In past entries, collecting hidden items, hugging gnomes, or finding secret areas would earn hats or masks. Little Nightmares III still has plenty of hidden optional activities peppered throughout, but now they don’t reward players with anything. All fun costumes are microtransactions, and the side objectives are only for achievements…which don’t even exist for anyone playing Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 consoles, rendering all collectibles pointless. There isn’t even a secret bonus ending for 100% completion like in Little Nightmares II.

Another issue is that the story has major holes in it, which is ironic considering how sparse it is. The problem stems from Alone. Without spoiling it, her presence and wrench defy the major twist at the end. Once the twist is known, it doesn’t make any sense how Low was able to get anywhere. Players will need to make huge leaps of logic and write for the developers to make sense of the massive gaps. Most of the issues could have been fixed if Little Nightmares III hadn’t been strictly a co-op experience.