Zniw Adventure ("Zniw" is pronounced like "zniff," according to the in-game encyclopedia) is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Azure Mountain and published by Azure Mountain and Kurki Games. It was released on November 6, 2020. The game is notable for its hand-drawn animation inspired by cartoons from The '90s, as well as depicting dinosaurs to be accurate to the latest scientific discoveries while keeping them cartoony.
The game takes place 75 million years ago, in a world of anthropomorphic dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals who have their own towns and buildings. Our protagonist is Zniw, a young female ornithopod of ambiguous species who lives in the town of Wajapulka. Zniw wakes up one morning to realize, in a panic, that it's her mother's hatchday, and she doesn't have a gift for her. Zniw tries to buy a beautiful bouquet of flowers at a store across the street, but another dinosaur buys it before she can. Zniw gets the idea to make a necklace out of pebbles, but due to a series of unfortunate events, she loses the first pebble she had, gets spooked by a carnivorous dino, and falls off a cliff, causing her to get lost far from home. The player must guide Zniw on a journey back to Wajapulka, during which she will meet tons of quirky characters, solve puzzles, collect items, collect shiny pebbles as a bonus sidequest, eat various plants and fungi, and more.
You can purchase it on Steam here
. A sequel, Zid Journey was successfully Kickstarted and has a Steam page here, but is not currently released.
Tropes found in this game include:
- Accidental Tickle Torture: There is a blue Euoplocephalus stuck in the entrance of the bridge at Rivenn-na. When Zniw tries to climb over him, he is tickled by it, and he starts laughing and quivering so hard that Zniw almost falls into the river. Later, when Zniw gets around him and tries to pull him out by the tail, he gets ticklish again, and swings his tail uncontrollably, causing her to fall into the river for real.
- Always Chaotic Evil: All Troodon are omnivorous bullies who threaten to eat herbivorous dinosaurs and scare them away. The closest things to good Troodon are the ones in Fungilla, but even they tend to be jerks, especially the shopkeeper.
- Anachronistic Animal: The game is supposedly set in the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, but Triceratops, Albertonykus, Pachycephalosaurus, and Thescelosaurus are from the later Maastrichtian and Nothronychus is from the earlier Turonian. This is pointed out in the in-game encyclopedia.
- Big Sister Bully: Downplayed. Zniw has a younger brother and an older sister. Zniw's sister smugly shows off the fancy present she got their mother: an expensive-looking necklace. This makes her siblings feel bad because her brother only did a crayon drawing that is hardly impressive in comparison, while Zniw forgot to get a present entirely. Zniw's sister doesn't technically do anything too harsh, but her expressions make it clear that she's very haughty, and she enjoys being superior to her siblings.
- Carnivores Are Mean: Zig-zagged. While Zniw encounters some carnivores that range from being just grumpy or outright ferocious, she also encounters some friendly carnivores like Sam the snake. She gets by spooked by a Daspletosaurus early in the game, but the Daspletosaurus looked like she wanted to talk to her. Unusually for Dinosaur Media, the Big Bad is not a carnivorous dinosaur but a pterosaur, though he's motivated by greed rather than any predatory instinct.
- Cartoon Creature: Most of the characters are specific, real-life dinosaur species, but Zniw is a made-up species of ornithopod.
- Character Development: Zniw starts out as a lost, frightened young girl who is clueless on how to survive or get back home, and also constantly scared of any creature that might pose a threat to her. Over the course of her adventure, Zniw becomes both clever and fearless. She is able to find creative solutions to many problems, get out of life-threatening situations, and after outwitting the Big Bad and getting him stuck in a mud pit, she grabs a sign and leaps at him to beat him over the head and knock him out.
- Clamshell Currency: Justified. The village of Fungilla uses seashells as their currency. A Troodon shopkeeper explains that this is because the village is inside a hollow mountain, where seashells are rare. There used to be an entrance and exit to the mountain before it was blocked off by the thief plaguing the village. It's implied that the residents used to leave the mountain to collect the seashells.
- Convenience Store Gift Shopping: The plot kicks off when Zniw realizes she doesn't have a gift for her mother's hatchday. Zniw goes to a shop across the street and tries to buy a bouquet of flowers, but another dinosaur buys it first.
- Crappy Homemade Gift: Invoked. In the opening cutscene, Zniw's little brother shows off a crayon drawing he made of him and his mother, as his gift for his mother's hatchday. Zniw's older sister smugly shows off her gift, a fancy golden necklace, bringing her brother to tears. We never see how Zniw's mother reacts to these gifts, though.
- Defeat Means Menial Labor: After the Big Bad is captured at the end of the game, he is sentenced to digging up mushrooms.
- Disney Death: Chief Ezfrazius is assumed to be dead after fighting the Big Bad one-on-one to let Zniw and Agu escape. Ezfrazius turns up again in the last cutscene, wearing a cast, but still very much alive.
- Dumb Dinos: Inverted; dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles are sapient or civilized, while mammals are feral.
- Feathered Fiend: The Troodon, which are accurately depicted with feathers, are not the friendliest dinos around, to say the least. Downplayed with the Hesperonychus who is very rude towards Zniw, but mainly because she woke him up during his sleep.
- Final Dungeon Preview: Happens as soon as you get to Riven-na, as Jaw Mountain, the game's final area which you won't visit until much later, can already be seen in the background.
- Foreshadowing: According to Sam the snake, a common snake saying is "A flying creature is never to be trusssted." (Because pterosaurs prey on snakes.) The villain turns out to be an azhdarchid pterosaur, a fairly large one at that.
- Fragile Speedster: At first, Zniw has no fighting ability, and is often afraid of carnivorous animals, but she can run very fast. Following her Character Development, while she is still fast, she ends up landing the final hit on the Big Bad, knocking him out.
- Fun Size: A chibi version of Zniw, complete with dilated pupils, appears in the loading screens. Zniw hardly needed to look cuter, but this drawing is a nice touch anyway.
- Harmless Villain: Due to the Nobody Can Die nature of the game, Zniw sometimes runs into dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals that probably would attack her, but they decide not to.
- The sleeping Deinosuchus wakes up and gets angry every time Zniw tries to do Palate Propping to it, but the Deinosuchus just spits out whatever is in its mouth and goes back to sleep.
- Some Troodon threaten to eat or attack Zniw, but they never do anything more than make threats and throw a pebble at her.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: The bridge at Rivenn-na gets blocked by a blue Euoplocephalus stuck in it. When Zniw tries to climb over him, he turns out to be ticklish and nearly knocks her off into the river, so she has to find another way to get to the other side and pull him out from there.
- Knight of Cerebus: Popoelio the azhdarchid. Right before he first appears, things get rather dark and serious. The fact that he attempts to outright murder Zniw shows he means business, in an otherwise lighthearted game no less.
- Meek Mesozoic Mammal: Averted. Small mammals appear, but they are not anthropomorphic or civilized like the dinosaurs are. Instead, they are animalistic creatures that the dinosaurs treat as pests. The player is clearly meant to sympathize more with the dinosaurs than the mammals. Some dinos are tasked with catching mammals to keep them out of their food supplies. It's never outright stated if any dinos eat mammals, although there is one segment where Zniw helps a dino catch some mammals, and each time Zniw gives a mammal to the dino, he turns away from the camera and does... something with it. Considering that it's heavily implied that some dinosaurs still eat each other despite being anthropomorphic, it's definitely possible that some dinos eat mammals.
- Middle Child Syndrome: Zniw is the middle child of her family and as such the only one who forgot to get a hatchday gift for her mom. To add insult to injury, her older sister had gotten a fancy jewelry for their mom in contrast to their younger brother's simple drawing.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: At Rivenn-na, Zniw has to get past a crocodile in order to cross the river by using a crocodile repellent from the elder turtle. There is also a Deinosuchus, a gigantic alligator-relative, sleeping nearby, and it does not take too kindly to Zniw if she wakes it up.
- New Game Plus: After completing the game, the player has the option of starting a new playthrough while retaining all pebbles and encyclopedia entries found in the previous one.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In the beginning of the game, Zniw helps a dinosaur find their missing wallet at the store. In response, the dinosaur buys the last bouquet of flowers, which Zniw really needed, while acting cheerfully ignorant towards Zniw's distress.
- Nobody Can Die: Downplayed. One dinosaur in the Undercave died long before the events of the game, but that's it. Nobody dies during the course of the game. Despite all the perilous situations that Zniw gets into, she always gets through them, and there are no Game Overs in this game. Even the Big Bad, although beaten up, is still defeated without killing him.
- NPC Roadblock: The blue Euoplocephalus in Rivenn-na blocks the bridge because he accidentally got stuck in it. It's established that Zniw cannot simply climb over him because he's very ticklish, and if she tries to do so, he'll laugh so hard that he'll nearly make her fall into the river. The player must find another way across the river.
- Palate Propping: The sleeping Deinosuchus has a chunk of meat in its teeth that Zniw needs. In order to get it, she can try propping its mouth open with a stick or a large log. However, it doesn't work, and the Deinosuchus just spits out the stick or log before going back to sleep. Using the stick, log, and "croc-away" on the Deinosuchus gets you an achievement.
- Point of No Return: Just before you enter the chief's apartment, Agu warns Zniw that once they enter, there's no turning back. This indicates to the player that they won't be able to leave the apartment, and that the end of the game is near.
- Real Men Wear Pink: One of the first dinosaurs Zniw meets in the game is a huge and imposing-looking male Lambeosaurus. He owns a pink wallet with a polka dot pattern.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: There are two Euoplocephalus brothers, one colored red, and the other blue. The blue one is meek and kind of a pushover. He got stuck in the entrance of a bridge because some Troodon startled him. He claims that he can fight if necessary, but we never see him get aggressive. The red one is much more fierce and defensive. He actually yells at the Troodon to get out of his way.
- Reluctant Monster: Implied. Near the beginning of the game, Zniw is frightened by the sudden appearance of a Daspletosaurus (a large, carnivorous dinosaur similar to the T. rex.) However, the Daspletosaurus seemed like she simply wanted to talk to her, although this is unclear because she isn't seen again for the rest of the game.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Zig-zagged. For the most part, dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles act like civilized and decent people. However, there are a few exceptions. The crocodilians in Rivenn-na are feral creatures that small dinos fear. Also, the Big Bad is a pterosaur who happens to be a Genius Bruiser with an intelligent plan. Mammals, however, are always treated as small, animalistic pests.
- Sapient Eat Sapient: Although this is never shown on-screen, it's hinted (or even outright stated) multiple times that dinosaurs in this world do eat each other despite being anthropomorphic.
- Zniw is terrified of a Daspletosaurus, a large tyrannosaur, although the latter has no intention of harming her.
- A Deinosuchus is seen sleeping at one point, and it has a chunk of meat in its teeth. Its unclear whether or not this creature is sapient, but Zniw takes the chunk of meat and gives it to Sam the snake, who is definitely sapient, as a snack.
- When Sam the snake says that he's hungry, Zniw defiantly says that she doesn't plan on becoming his meal. Sam reassures her that he never intended to eat her, making this a defied example.
- Some Troodon threaten to eat Zniw when she enters their turf.
- Popoeilo the azhdarchid, who is also clearly sapient, attempts to bite Zniw (or at least, the dummy of Zniw made by the player) with his sharp beak. He's big enough to crush the dummy to pieces, so his beak could probably cleave Zniw in half.
- Shout-Out: Some of the achievement names contain pop culture references:
- Shown Their Work: The dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals are well-researched to be up-to-date with modern paleontology, with the in-game encyclopedia providing real-life facts.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The Daspletosaurus only appears for one scene, but by being responsible for getting Zniw far away from home, she plays a crucial role in the game's storyline.
- Small Taxonomy Pools: Averted. This game features and stars a lot of obscure dinosaur species, such as Albertonykus and Caenagnathus, and others. In fact, there are few famous dinosaur species in the game, like Triceratops and Parasaurolophus, while others such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor are not present at all. (However, there is a Daspletosaurus, a species that is lesser known but similar to the T. rex, and a Hesperonychus, a tiny dromaeosaurid or raptor.)
- Sssssnake Talk: Sam the snake hisses his S's. He even introduces himself as "Ssssam."
- Snakes Are Sinister: Inverted. Sam the snake is as kind and helpful as can be.
- Social Ornithopod: Hadrosaurs and small ornithopods are shown living together in societies with each other and other herbivorous dinosaurs.
- Temper-Ceratops: The ceratopsians in the game can be rather touchy. Most particular is Steffen the Unescoceratops (a small leptoceratopsid or basal ceratopsian), who is snappy and distrustful towards Zniw due to being an outsider.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Invoked and subverted. At the beginning of the game, Zniw gets spooked by a Daspletosaurus suddenly popping up from a bush, although the Daspletosaurus meant no harm and wanted to talk to her. Nonetheless, according to the encyclopedia, the Daspletosaurus and Gorgosaurus are understandably feared by other dinosaurs, to the point they are given roles of monsters in horror stories.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: Inverted with the blue Euoplocephalus at Rivenn-na; he is rather cowardly and becomes scared by a pack of Troodon, despite him being bigger and well-armed. Played straight with his brother, a red Euoplocephalus, who has no problem standing up to the Troodon pack blocking the path.
- Wise Old Turtle: An elderly, anthropomorphic turtle is a friendly NPC in the Scattered Woods. She gives Zniw directions to help her find her way home, and later gives Zniw a homemade "crocodile repellent," which is necessary to get past the crocodile in Rivenn-na. As it turns out, she has a turtle husband who left to investigate the disappearance of pterosaurs in the area, but got stuck in Fungilla.
- World of Funny Animals: The game takes place in a world of anthropomorphic dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Justified as it's set during the Late Cretaceous, millions of years before humans evolved.
