Originally written and published for StropsE.com, written December 20th, 2020

Collection games are great, and in the Epic Games exclusive Ooblets, you get all the benefits of farming/community games like Stardew Valley with the collection and characters of the Pokemon franchise. While the game is still in early access, a number of content updates have been added as work has been done. In a year as crazy as 2020, it’s nice to take a step back and do some silly dance battles against some plants, so let’s dive into the updates. 

(images & GIFs from ooblets.com, courtesy of dev Glumberland, publisher Double Fine) 

As the first major content update since the game’s release in early access, it’s clear that the Nullwhere content update had its spooky themes and Ooblets inspired by Halloween horrors and spooks. It was released mid-October, just in time for the season of jumpscares and frights, and mainly focuses on the new region Nullwhere as part of the ongoing quest to turn on all the Oobnet Towers to restore the Oobnet to Badgetown. As noted in their update post here, developer Glumberland has added a host of new Ooblets and NPCs to talk and dance with, boasting 75+ new lines of dialogue in the main area, and all the new NPCs of Nullwhere with their own storyline and problems. In addition, Nullwhere boasts several new crops, collectibles, and recipes to craft, which in turn are needed to dance battle and collect the cute new Ooblets native to Nullwhere. If you’re a fan of Mimikyu, you’ll love these costumed little buggers. 

The actual story of the NPCs in Nullwhere alludes to some interesting dynamics with a future region of the game, Port Forward. While we can’t access Port Forward yet, it’s implied that the cultists who are currently tormenting the residents of Nullwhere were encouraged to do so by a Port Forward Realtor named Scallissa, who’s seen trying to advertise a prime sea-side property to the disgruntled residents of Nullwhere just in case they want to move out. You know, because of all these Creep Cultists. It’s a buyer’s market after all. 

And that’s all for the 0.4 Nullwhere update! A spooky new swamp zone to explore, some new crops to grow, and some new friends to… also grow, because all the Ooblets are plants that you ultimately grow to add to your team. I guess that’s better than just forcing them to breed like you may in Pokemon? Probably best not to think about it too deeply.

Edit/Update: 9/12/2023

Ooblets has since had it’s full release to Epic Games, Xbox, and Windows systems as of September 1st, 2022, and is also available as a physical game for the Nintendo Switch.