Fighting Dark in the Light of Nightlight One Last Time

Jul 14, 2023 | Sessions | 0 comments

Guard against the forces of nightmares and darkness with an adorable cast of stuffed animal characters in Nightlight.

I seem to be doing well with locating solo games I last played in 2018 or 2019 lately! Nightlight was always intriguing to me with its idea of having stuffed animals battle against some of the worst shadows of the night. There weren’t too many fond memories, yet I still wanted to return to see if I might ward off the denizens just one last time…

Game Overview

Game Name: Nightlight
Publication Year:
2014
Designers:
Brandon Higley and Nick Tapia
Artists:
Katherine Cook and Brandon Horvath
Publisher: BNKB Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game (Cooperative)

Over the course of 3 rounds, stuffed animals must use their toys and abilities to fight off the denizens of the nightmare landscape. Dice provide constant rolling for attacking and defending. It’s up to the adorable characters to hold back the nightmare forces until morning arrives!

Protecting the World from Nightmares and Darkness in Nightlight
R

First Play

March 21, 2018

Complexity

1

Latest Play

July 12, 2023

Expansions

0

Setup Time

5 Minutes

Lifetime Plays

20

Play Time

30 Minutes

:

High Score

N/A

1

Game Area

32" x 22"

;

Low Score

N/A

Cute Stuffed Animals

All of the characters consist of various stuffed animals with their own special abilities and statistics. This pirate octopus is just the cutest! Look at that tiny hat and smile!

The main issue, however, is that there are 2 characters that are almost always needed: One for offense, and the other for healing. Others are sort of optional.

Solo isn’t clearly laid out in the rulebook, which is actually just a folded piece of paper… Lots of ambiguities, too.

These pieces of art are charming and often comical in some of the ability cards. But that all changes quickly…

Choosing from a Host of Adorable Stuffed Animals in Nightlight

Unsettling Artwork

I know that appearances will always be subjective, but I couldn’t stand to look at this artwork for too long. Even now, it makes me a little uncomfortable for some reason.

Too scary for me, I suppose! I even debated not posting it, yet if ever I think the stuffed animals make this entire game cute, I’ll know it’s the exact opposite.

Different nightmares have their own denizen decks, while there are standard enemies who show up with each play.

Unfortunately, this all comes down to luck with the dice. Rolling up to 12 at once felt like overkill, too.

Dark and Unsettling Nightmare and Denizen Artwork from Nightlight

Triceratops Pony!

The teddy bear is the most offensively capable character, and picking up this wind-up triceratops early made this a formidable foe. With one swipe, nightmares scattered!

It simply allowed a single roll to attack 3 denizens at once, which felt pretty overpowered. And then with the Bear-zerk ability, I did it again later in each round.

There is a lovely concept here, but I had trouble distancing myself from the very creepy nightmare artwork.

However, at least I found a dinosaur! This was a nice way to fight off the darkness from round to round.

Teddy and the Triceratops to the Rescue in Nightlight

Yarr! Walkin’ the Plank

Victory is achieved by having at least one stuffed animal survive through the third round… Which isn’t much of a challenge, especially with the teddy bear in play.

Sadly, poor rolls got the better of the awesome pirate octopus, who fell in battle right near the end. Oh, dear!

These heart tokens are about the only impressive part of the production quality, sadly. I noticed these cards felt pretty disappointing to handle. Poor octopus, though!

I was rather glad to be nearing the end, though. My hasty cleanup made the nightmares disappear… Forever!

Losing a Friend in the Final Round of Nightlight

A Stark Contrast in the Sort of Artwork

Maybe I’m a complete outlier, but the nightmare artwork really did not sit well with me! I don’t know if it’s due to the very dark pigments or more abstract style, yet I continue to scroll past the single image above. However, I still tried to look at the game to find its merits. Unfortunately, it’s all a very random dice-rolling experience.

The teddy bear will almost always guarantee a victory… Being able to fight a denizen engaged with everyone at the same time is extremely useful! I almost thought I forgot a classic when I was looking through the interesting stuffed animals, but apparently they live in a very dangerous, depressing world. I’ll stick with my Calico Critters in the future!

Session Overview

Play Number: 20
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game (Cooperative)
Play Details: Zordo Nightmare at the Standard Difficulty
Outcome: Win

With even more weapons picked up from the toy chest, the teddy bear was the main leader of this team! That’s how it often goes, though, and my decision to leave out a healing character hurt. I also had the dog in play, who did a little bit, but not much. All in all, it was nice to see these cute characters again… Yet I am very happy that I won’t see these nightmares and denizens ever again. Farewell!

The Most Powerful Stuffed Animal in the Toy Chest of Nightlight

%

20 Plays

Affordability

Price & Value

5

Functionality

Challenges & Mechanics

5

Originality

Design & Theme

5

Quality

Components & Rules

3

Reusability

Achievement & Enjoyment

3

Variability

Distinctness & Randomness

4

+ Pros (Positives)

  • Each stuffed animal has its own unique ability and deck of cards that can unlock new moves and abilities.
  • The toy chest offers a random assortment of new toys to distribute, although all of these are seen with each play.
  • Many characters and abilities offer the option to attack denizens engaged with others, which can be very helpful.
  • Different nightmares provide a bit of variety, and additional difficulty modes help add more of a challenge.
  • Not a lot of statistics are used, so it’s easy to figure out attack and defense values to count how many dice to roll.
  • Fighting off the nightmares and shadows of night with stuffed animals is an appealing sort of theme.

– Cons (Negatives)

  • There is something very unsettling about the nightmare artwork, which is a major and focal part of gameplay.
  • Results come down to rolling a bunch of dice and hoping for 5s and 6s with very little variety in any strategies.
  • Certain characters are practically required for doing well, so the choice of a team is much more limited.
  • A lot of special ability text is present, yet the rules don’t actually explain all of the concepts, leading to confusion.

More Nightlight

Explore related posts about Nightlight!

Victory Conditions

Survive Through the Final Round

  • Overall Goal Progress 100% 100%

Goals and Milestones

R

Win against Isola at the standard difficulty level.

R

Win against Spidipede at the standard difficulty level.

R

Win against Zordo at the standard difficulty level.

Continue the Conversation

What do you think of Nightlight? I enjoy the overall idea behind the theme, but the implementation and dark artwork didn’t turn out to work for me. Are there other solo games you enjoy about stuffed animals? There are some out there, yet I may be better off just avoiding any nightmare artwork. Ha ha! Nice to have visited these characters one last time.

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