Grade: B+
Get your bear ready for hibernation
Far Bear Week is a short game with a clear theme. You’re a bear and want to prepare for winter but only have a short time to fatten up. So you run (and then roll) around collecting as much food as possible before the timer runs out.
The gameplay is short and straightforward.
The game has only three short levels, and while it’s fun, it’s not hard to get through them. Each level takes about 2-3 minutes, and I three-starred each of them the first time.
You can find a special secret to unlock more bear skins when you reach each level’s end. The final and greatest bear skin is Winnie the Pooh (though not named that for obvious copyright reasons).
Fat Bear Week is a real competition.
So, as I was working on this game, I became curious about where the concept came from. To my surprise, I learned there is a yearly competition with a bracket where thousands vote on these bears based on video and photos collected. These bears in Katmai National Park, Alaska, feast on salmon and are some of the world’s fattest bears
Fat Bear Week comes back every October and, while new to me, has many media highlights (has been highlighted in the media (https://www.npr.org/2022/10/04/1126698174/fat-bear-week-alaska). I, for one, now have a vested interest in ensuring I follow the 2023 Fat Bear competition all through to the end.
Wrap-up
The Fat Bear Week game is free on Itch, and anyone can download it. My only knock on the game is that it’s so short, but I don’t think that’s even a fair thing to say since the game is being given away and is a student passion project from the developers. Fat Bear Week knows its theme and executes it well.
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