DaRmaZat After the touching Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth in April, another game this year takes us back to Tove Jansson’s wonderfully whimsical world of Moominvalley. Inspired by the Nordic fantasy novel of the same name, Moomin: Midsummer Madness is a point-and-click adventure that puts Moomintroll and Little My at the heart of a charming puzzle experience.
In Moomin: Midsummer Madness, the story revolves around a volcanic eruption that breaks out in Moominvalley, accompanied by a heavy storm. Moomintroll and his loved ones fear that their friend Snufkin might still be somewhere in the valley. They go to sleep worried, and the following morning proves their fears correct: the entire world has become one big sea, leaving them initially trapped inside their home. As the water eventually rises all the way up to the roof, they are forced to seek refuge in a spooky theatre that is just as flooded.
The stars are this time Moomintroll and Little My, Mymble’s cheeky younger sister. During the point-and-click sections, you can switch between the two, while rummaging through the hand-illustrated environments for useful items to pick up, only to then use them in the right location or order, or combine them with the right other objects to make progress with the puzzles.
For the first task, you have to help Snorkmaiden, Moomin’s girlfriend, who wants to make a beautiful necklace and also needs a flower, an ankle ring and a beautiful dress to go with it. You and Little My have to figure all of that out. It involves quite a bit of backtracking, but the environments are not exactly huge, of course.
While this game is clearly meant to be an entertaining narrative adventure rather than an intense brainteaser, it certainly is not the latter. Although you can choose to automatically skip certain puzzles and mini-games if you do not feel like solving them, there are other moments where you really do have to think and experiment.
Truth be told, sometimes the game gives you tips through dialogue or visual hints, while comments from Moomintroll, Little My, or NPCs, can also make it clear what needs to be done. Other times, it is genuinely not clear.
There is also a built-in hint function that can be switched on or off and is represented by a magnifying glass. Pressing the button briefly highlights interactive objects in the environment with small sparkling asterisks, but these disappear again almost immediately and do not necessarily point you towards something useful for the puzzle you are currently solving.
Personally, I would have preferred a toggle that kept these highlights visible, or a system that only highlighted objects relevant to your current progress. As it stands, the trial-and-error factor can still be rather high, and I felt this took away from the gameplay experience, as the game can turn into a tedious process of clicking on every object in every accessible environment until you discover something useful and get one step closer to the main puzzle.
However, there is still a lot to admire in this puzzler. The soundtrack in Moomin: Midsummer Madness is certainly lovely, featuring both very cheerful tunes and whimsical melodies. With its now familiar comic book style, colorful hand-painted and hand-illustrated environments, and endearing, humorous characters, the game delivers exactly the charm you would expect from it. And while the mouse-based clicking can be a little finicky at times, the controls are generally fine. As a lightweight game, performance is of course also nothing to complain about.
Final Thoughts
Moomin: Midsummer Madness is a heartwarming game with plenty of charm, thanks to its beautiful visuals and lovely music. The most fundamental thing you will be doing in this game, namely solving puzzles, is however much less straightforward than expected and requires a lot of trial-and-error clicking all over the place. As a result, your progress can still come to a halt regularly, making the game feel a bit more drawn-out than intended. But if you enjoy leisurely searching through beautiful illustrations for a needle in a haystack while listening to the amusing sounds of the wonderfully endearing Moomintroll and his friends, this one should be right up your alley.
Additional Information
Release Date: November 12, 2026
Reviewed On: PC. Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.
Developer: Crossbridge Game Studios
Publisher: Shochiku
Relevant links: Available via Steam.
Mr_PoOL 