There was a moment maybe ten years back when every game thought it was a witty notion to crowbar the format in, and did a half-arsed job of it. One moment you're traditionally platforming your way up into the clouds to find coins, the next you're plotting the downfall of a corporation with a rag-tag group of rebellious leaves in their underground metro station, and after that you're taking part in a completely one-off Dance Dance Revolution-style dance off with an arrogant robot.Īnd crucially, it does all of these bits extremely well. It's silly yet brilliantly implemented, funny without being zany, cute without being cloying, and it all moves along at a splendid zip. Which involves poddling about, kicking physicsy objects, chatting with the locals, playing games, solving puzzles, jumping all over, winning at made-up sports, rolling through secret tunnels, being best at dance competitions, and kicking robots until they're cross. The inevitable unfolding plot (about which it would be frankly ludicrous to spend too much time analysing as an allegory for the ravishes of capitalism) is about fighting back against this naughty-bob. is a cloud! His enormous metal cloud robots are probably harvesting all their supplies of corn for good! Look at all the money they drop everywhere! It's definitely not suspicious that the CEO of Sunshine Inc. Upon leaving your hillside hovel, you discover a green and happy village where the pear-like creatures delight in how money rains down from the skies, thanks to the apparent kindness of a corporation called Sunshine Inc. It turns out, however, that you're a Mr Man-like red ball with eyes and legs, mostly expressionless, and definitely not terrifying. A creature feared by the locals, because you've been gone long enough for them to have mythologised you.

Pikuniku, as well as being outlandishly fun to say out loud, is a platforming puzzle game in which you play The Beast.

That's what the character in the ridiculously delightful Pikuniku most immediately reminds me of. Publisher: Devolver Digital Release: 24th Janĭo you remember those jelly-like toy octopuses you had when you were a kid, which you throw at a window or wall? They'd half-stick/half-walk their way down the surface, their legs glooping on and off as they rolled in a semi-controlled fall.

Pikuniku price