A Short Hike Review and Why a Small Island Feels So Big

My first run through A Short Hike took two hours and ten minutes. My second, a week later, took almost four, and I did not reach the summit any faster. I spent the extra time fishing off a dock, losing at beachstickball to a dog and climbing a cliff purely because I wanted to see what was on top. That gap between the two runs says more about the game than any feature list.

This A Short Hike review comes several years after its 2019 release, and the game has aged remarkably well. It is a small exploration game made mostly by one developer, Adam Robinson-Yu, about a bird named Claire who needs to climb to the top of Hawk Peak to get phone reception. The goal is simple. What makes it special is how generously it lets you ignore that goal.

What A Short Hike Is About

Claire arrives at her Aunt May's cabin in a provincial park, waiting for an important call that never connects in the valley. The only place with signal is the summit. From there the whole island is open to you, with the peak always visible in the distance.

There is no combat, no map marker list and no failure state worth the name. You walk, climb, glide, swim and talk to the other visitors in the park: hikers, campers, a kid looking for a lost item, a fisherman with very particular opinions. Each one gives you a reason to wander somewhere new.

The writing deserves credit here. Conversations rarely run longer than a few lines, but they are funny, a little awkward and very human, the way chatting with strangers on a real trail can be. Claire is sarcastic, slightly anxious about her phone and not especially keen on hiking at the start. Watching her mood shift as the island wins her over gives the climb a quiet emotional thread, and it means the final conversation at the top feels earned rather than tacked on.

Golden Feathers Turn Climbing Into a Reward

The heart of the game is the golden feather. Each feather you collect gives Claire one more segment of stamina, which lets her climb a little higher up a rock face and flap a little longer in the air. You find them hidden around the island, earn them by helping people and buy a few from the shop.

That design is clever because it ties every side activity back to the main goal. Helping someone track down a lost item is not a distraction from the climb, it is how you climb further. By the time you have eight or ten feathers, cliffs that were impossible an hour earlier become a short scramble, and the island visibly shrinks in your head. It is the same satisfying growth you get from a Metroidvania, delivered without a single locked door.

Exploration Without a Checklist

Many open world games fill the screen with icons and tracked objectives. A Short Hike does the opposite. Your only real guidance is the peak and the occasional hint from a character. Paths branch, streams lead to hidden coves, and the coastline is full of small rewards like coins, sticks, shells and the odd buried chest you dig up with a shovel.

The game trusts you to be curious, much like Outer Wilds rewards the most curious players, though on a much gentler and smaller scale. There is no wrong direction. If you head the "wrong" way you usually find a feather, a friend or a view.

Side activities worth your time

• Fishing: a relaxed minigame with a journal of species to fill in.
• Beachstickball: keep a ball in the air with a friend for as many hits as you can.
• Boat rental: a little motorboat that opens up the islands offshore.
• Collecting: shells and odd items you can trade with other visitors for rewards.

Why Its Length Is a Strength, Not a Weakness

A common complaint about A Short Hike is that it is too short for the money. I think that argument misreads what the game offers. At a launch price of around 8 dollars, and often less in sales, two to four hours of carefully designed play is a better deal than many 40 hour games padded with repetitive tasks.

The length also means almost everyone finishes it. Achievement data on PC regularly shows that most players never see the end of long games. Here, nearly every player gets the full emotional arc, including an ending that lands far harder than a game this cheerful has any right to. It is a short story rather than a novel, and it is better for knowing that.

Art, Sound and Feel

The art uses chunky low-poly models rendered at a deliberately low resolution, which gives everything a soft pixelated look. You can sharpen it in the settings, but the default suits the cosy mood. The soundtrack by Mark Sparling shifts with where you are and what you are doing, adding instruments as you climb and softening when you stop. Gliding off a ledge as the music swells is one of the best small moments in recent games.

Controls are simple and forgiving. Claire grabs ledges generously, and falling simply means trying another route. Like Celeste, A Short Hike feels kind, but here kindness replaces challenge almost entirely, which is exactly the point.

Who Should Play It

It runs well on modest hardware and is available on PC, Nintendo Switch and other platforms. It is also a fine game to play side by side with a child, handing over the controller for the climbing parts.

FAQ

How long does A Short Hike take to finish?

Reaching the summit takes about one and a half to two hours. Finding most feathers and side activities brings it closer to four hours.

Is A Short Hike good for children?

Yes. There is no violence, the controls are easy and the dialogue is short and warm. Younger children may need help reading, but the game is very forgiving.

Can you miss anything important?

Not really. You can return to every area before and after reaching the peak, so nothing is permanently locked away.

The Verdict

A Short Hike is one of the best value small games of the last decade: a two to four hour climb that rewards curiosity at every step and ends with real feeling. Play it on a quiet evening, ignore the summit for as long as you like and collect every feather you stumble across. If you enjoy games with secrets tucked into every corner, our Animal Well review is a good next read.