Acornia: Mirror Worlds Hands-On Preview – Adorably Nutty
The creators of Tinykin, a Pikmin-inspired adventure game, are back, though this time with a whole new title. What happens when you give a squirrel the powers of Kirby, mix in acrobatic platforming, and add a side of town building and shopkeeping? Well, you get Acornia: Mirror Worlds, and despite the blending of genres, developers Splashteam manage to bring these seemingly disparate ideas together into a surprisingly charming and nutty adventure.
The life of a squirrel might just be nuttier than you think, and we got some early hands-on time with this quirky title.
Gather Your Nuts
As revealed at Gamescom 2026, Acornia: Mirror Worlds is Splashteam’s latest adventure game. As the name so clearly hints at, you’ll play as a squirrel named Alva. Alva, like any hero in a story, sees her home (Acornia) under siege by a mysterious dark force known as the Duramen. Angry spirits from a mirror dimension, Alva must use everything in her arsenal to fend these monsters off and, in doing so, help rebuild Acornia to its former glory.
For combat, Splashteam keeps things simple, leaning into the idea of squirrels literally stuffing their mouth up with everything in sight. Alva will traverse levels, sucking everything into her mouth, and using objects (including enemies) as a projectile against other enemies. Now, don’t go in expecting this to be a Kirby game, but it’s clear it takes big inspiration from the IP.
It’s a simple premise, but sometimes the simplest of things end up being all we need, and from my hands-on with an early demo, I have to say, there’s a lot of fun, as well as charm, to be found in this game. It plays much like a twin-stick shooter, and the visuals blend 2D cartoon-like characters (think Cuphead) with 3D environments. Seeing Alva’s expressions as she runs around sucking everything in her path will certainly make some chuckle.
But this isn’t a game solely focused on running around and shooting things. There’s actually another part of the game that plays into how the world works. You see, there are two dimensions: ours, the normal world where Alvo and the rest of the woodland critters reside, and then the dark mirror world known as Duramen. It’s called a dark mirror world because it’s a mirror of Arconia, only filled with corruption and many foes, including bosses to fend off.
In the normal world, however, the gameplay mechanics are quite different. Alva runs a store that players must manage when they aren’t exploring the dark dimension. Additionally, with Acornia in need of restoration, you’ll also have to gather resources while traversing the other dimension. This, in turn, lets you rebuild shops and other structures, opening up even more opportunities.
It’s an interesting blend of an adventure game and a mini-life sim. And you know what? It works a whole lot better than I was expecting. It’s a nice way to break up the pacing without it feeling too repetitive, and it feels like it gives you true purpose that goes beyond progressing from one area to the next.
Of course, this was a small slice of what’s expected out of the full game, but for now, things are looking very promising for Acornia: Mirror Worlds, and if it ends up being just as good as Tinykin, I say Splashgames is well on its way to another charming little adventure that could be a real hidden gem.
Acornia: Mirror Worlds launches sometime in 2027 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and the Nintendo Switch 2.
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