I’ve been playing hidden object games to chill out for twenty years. They may soothe my mind, but they don’t remain there — everything blurs together over the years. A few titles in the genre have stood out recently (such as Crime O’Clock), but Hidden in my Paradise raises the fun bar by having you find objects and move them to photograph little scenes. When I learned about the game, adding interactive photography to a hidden object game seemed just brilliant. And luckily, it is. The photography aspect, combined with massive amounts of detail and simple yet effective gameplay, has resulted in Ogre Pixel creating one of the best games the genre has to offer.
If you’re looking for a deep narrative (or any narrative), you won’t find it here. The game never really tells a story. Background information cannot be found in the game; you have to read the description. Here is what we know: aspiring photographer Laly, accompanied by Coronya the Fairy, sets out to become the best photographer ever by visiting small vignettes (AKA paradises or levels). And that’s it. Laly brings personality to the game. She is adorable when you open your camera and she raises hers, closing one eye to use the viewfinder; she will remain like this while you frame the photo. When a snap is correct, Laly puts the camera back around her neck and smiles. This is just one of many small details that make Hidden in my Paradise special.
The paradises are grouped by theme, such as forest or city. There will be three or four levels on one screen/page, and you to go left or right by clicking the arrows to access more. Some themes span multiple pages. You can create your own little paradises with items from the in-game currency shops to share with others across the world or play other paradises that have been uploaded.
You can cycle through day, evening, and night. This is especially useful if you’re struggling to find something at night. Sometimes, it might make the photo more appealing to you. Filters allow for further customisation, though scrolling through them is a pain (more on that later). There are filters to make the colours more vivid, make everything greyscale, add special effects, and more. It’s all just fun and doesn’t matter when you take your snaps.
The paradises range in size from tiny to large. Each has four parts: hidden objects, hidden fairies, snaps, and treasure chests. Hidden objects and snaps are the heart of the game, but the other two parts fit in nicely and expand gameplay. How many you have found can be found when you click on a paradise and see its info screen. The numbers for hidden objects, snaps, and fairies are also displayed in the paradises. Treasure chest stats are not.
Finding hidden objects is straightforward. A horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen shows pictures of what you need to find. (This bar can be collapsed if you don’t need it — so useful when you’ve found everything!) Sometimes, there are multiples of one item to be found. Now and then, something tricky is put into play. Objects can be hidden behind or camouflaged amongst other objects. Everything can be layered. You can see through the layers by moving your cursor to what you want to see behind. You can also see into larger buildings. This makes the game more dynamic than one that doesn’t allow objects to be layered. It’s just plain fun.
The snaps, or photos, make Hidden in my Paradise stand above other hidden object games. In addition to the hidden objects you need to find, you’ll need to recreate the photos provided. For example, you might need to grab a frog from the north and a bush from the east before placing them around a pond on the west, mirroring them as needed. Click the camera button, frame the image, and snap! If something is missing, it will give you an error. If not, you’ll get a big green checkmark and your photo becomes the example. There could be one or multiple snaps per paradise. When you select the image, it will remain on-screen until you close it. You can also resize this image and move it around, making small details easier to find and the photo easier to construct.
There are a few ways to handle snaps. I’m a photographer who loves building an image from scratch, so I prefer to take everything I need to an empty space around the paradise and put them all together with no obstructions. The other option is finding one object in the paradise and building around it; I only do this when several items don’t need moving to be contained in the frame, and moving them would be a hassle. (I found out quite quickly that you can randomly shove everything into the frame instead of carefully matching the original, but that seems like cheating.) I just wish the snaps I have taken were saved to my Switch…
Objects aren’t all that have been hidden in Hidden in my Paradise. The levels also contain hidden fairies and treasure chests. The number varies per paradise, but it’s usually three or four of each. The treasure chests are like the hidden objects, except you click on them to get more cash. The fairies function a bit differently. They hide behind objects that sparkle, and instead of clicking you need to move them for the fairies to flutter out. Again, it’s another addition to gameplay that adds to the experience as a whole.
The paradises may seem small, but when you look closer, you see how many items have been individually placed to create the scene. After creating some paradises of my own, I can tell you it takes a lot of patience and effort to make something magical. Yet somehow, each intricately crafted scene included with Hidden in my Paradise is magical. I spent so much time just poking through them, looking behind things or admiring the small details. There might be “only” 25 paradises, but they draw you in and encourage you to spend time with each.
An Extras section was added to Hidden in my Paradise last week. It includes free bonus levels based on seasonal events. There are currently three levels for Halloween, but this section will surely expand with time. You can get a sense of the update in this Halloween update trailer.
While playing through the levels, you will earn coins and tickets. Spend them on items you can use in your paradise designs. There is a shop for each theme, and all have different items. Items are bundled together so you’re not buying one at a time, and you use coins to pay for them (or purchase tickets). Each shop also has a gacha machine filled with little capsules of bundled items; this is where you use your tickets. The nice thing about the shop is that you cannot buy the same thing twice — it would be wasteful! After purchasing a bundle, it is marked as sold; once you earn a capsule in the gacha machine, you won’t get those items again anywhere else. There are a remarkable amount of items to buy to tailor your paradises to your tastes.
Hidden in my Paradise is generally filled with cozy goodness, but the controller optimisation is… lacking. The game feels like it was made for PC and touch screens before being ported to Switch without considering how the controller and the UI should interact with each other and the player. Triggers and bumpers are under-utilised, making the experience feel clunky. For example, to go from section to section of the game, you have to use the left joystick to move the cursor there before clicking A. It would be significantly easier to use the left/right bumper. There are times when the right joystick could be used, but instead, you need to click the little button on a scroll bar and hold it to move the contents up or down. The controller functions well inside of the actual levels (where the triggers zoom in and out), but outside, it feels like little movements take significantly more time than necessary.
Hidden in my Paradise is an exceptional hidden object game that captured my attention for several hours. (And trust me, that is not an easy feat.) You can play whether you have two minutes or two hours to spare. Yes, I have major beef with the controller optimisation or lack thereof, but there is so much to make up for that. The snap aspect, the fine details in the items, the amount of layering of items in the paradises, the art style, the freedom to create levels, and the sheer number of objects have made Hidden in my Paradise a shining example of the genre. I have collected every item and created every snap in every paradise. I have collected every item available. I did the same for the content of the Halloween update. The only thing to do for now is begin anew and hope for more extras!
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