I’ll Be Brave, Tomorrow Review: Sincere Story Meets Nostalgic 2D Platformer

While the core 80s inspired 2D platformer will be a huge draw for many fans, it’s the narrative of I’ll Be Brave, Tomorrow that amplifies every single aspect of it. Your experience will be from the perspective of a sick child spending time in the hospital, and everything from a Mario-esque platformer to a series of fun minigames will be there to distract you as the days go by. I’ll Be Brave, Tomorrow tackles a very tough concept with sincerity and joy that’ll carry you all the way to the end. 

A Powerful Story Anchors This Adventure

I’ll Be Brave, Tomorrow begins with a first-person view of a sick child named Robyn, looking up at blinding medical lights while being informed they’d collapsed at school and some tests need to be run. That experience brings you right into the heart of what makes this game so special. We all look to use video games as an escape, and any child in a scary situation like that would understandably seek any opportunity to stop thinking about their illness or how long they’ll be in the hospital. 

While a run through of the game may take as little as two or three hours, you’ll be on an emotional ride the entire time. Between tackling the core platformer, which we’ll get to in a moment, I’ll Be Brave, Tomorrow takes you moment to moment as Robyn goes from being mildly anxious about being there to getting frustrated and asking a nurse when they’ll be able to walk around without help or even go home. 

A handful of minigames throughout your journey will tap into different childhood experiences. You might jump into an obstacle course with a toy racecar or an all-time classic like the floor is lava. With loneliness at the hospital growing, Robyn will also find solace by chatting with different plushies like Fred the Frog. Perhaps most impactful is the seemingly simple children’s book “The Cub Who Did Not Hibernate” which is presented one chapter at a time, and it’ll take most of the game for you to reach the end of that tale. 

The Perfect Little Platformer

While a good chunk of the game will be these narrative moments as you go through each season, the central gameplay is an 80s-esque 2D platformer where you play as a Robin trying to find their way home. Each level steps up the difficulty with new challenges or additional abilities like the ever-present double jump, and you’ll simultaneously be trying to collect feathers as you progress through every level. It’s easy to dive into, but it’ll take time to get extra skilled just like platformers of the past. 

I’ll Be Brave, Tomorrow has about a dozen levels spread across Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Once you’ve reached the end of Robyn’s story, you can replay any level or minigame to aim for a better time or collect feathers you missed the first time around. If at any point you want to start things over and go through the story again, players can easily reset save data from game settings.

The platformer at the center of this title can be delightfully challenging, and that's only magnified by parallels between each level and Robyn's own struggles. This is exactly the kind of game you'll enjoy every moment of, put down for a bit, and continue to pick back up again and again. Each new time through I'll Be Brave, Tomorrow is going to illuminate more ways the story is woven across every part of this game.

You can snag this compact journey on Steam for just $14.99, and 50% of all revenue from I’ll Be Brave, Tomorrow will be donated to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.