I can't call myself an Amanita design games fan. I always loved their style, always had the music from their games in my playlist, but the games themselves... Not really fond of them. First outings by the studio were full of random clicking on stuff and seeing what happens and it worked fine, as they were free. When they decided to sell Samorost 2 i was honestly surprised as paying for that kind of gameplay didn't feel like a good idea (although, i'm guilty of loving Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail and it's weird moronic humor, i admit). Their second commercial release, Machinarium, didn't impress me much either. Apart from the usual beauty invisuals and sound, it was a very flawed "standard" adventure game that suffered from the old adventure games design decisions Amanita should've simply avoided. Botanicula is the best of both concepts combined. It has it's own share of randomness, most of which is completely optional. And it has some concepts usual for the "standard" adventure games. And, while having some slight flaws of those designs in several moments of the game, most of the time it simply works perfectly. And it creates a very special feel throught the game - one that does challange you from time to time, but almost never breaks the flow of the story and pacing. And what is much, so much more important, it makes you smile almost constantly. It's very hard to make the game playful and silly in a such way, that the player joins it in having fun and doesn't get frustrated or feel the that the fun is fake. Botanicula somehow understands that magic and, through art and sound as Amanita always did right, with gameplay not getting in the way this time but helping the magic, it makes you fall in love with it.
