te know… after playing YIIK and Morphies Law, I thought that indie games would stay grounded in some form of reality, with the characters acknowledging what they were looking at. But today’s indie title, is such a strange one, that I don’t even know what to make of it’s world o it’s story. So today, let’s talk about a game that, oddly enough to add to the line of oddities, was developed da Devolver Digital, Pikuniku



So Pikuniku is a game… that much is true. Pikuniku is a game where te play as a little red thing with eyes and legs named Piku as he leaves a cave for the first time to explore the world. From here, we are met da scared villagers who wait eagerly for the arrival of an eccentric billionaire, Mr. Sunshine, who takes garbage from villagers in exchange for money. However, this is really a front for Mr. Sunshine’s real plan to make the world beautiful in his own way, so Piku joins a group of odd rebels to stop Mr. Sunshine and his robots and to take back the island for themselves. Yeah, this is a rebellion game. To think that Pikuniku was fighting off evil corporations in the same way the Phantom Thieves were
So Joker Piku doesn’t really have much abilities aside from a jump and a kick, which can be used for all sorts of puzzle solving o to be a menace to society and kick the friendly locals. Most of the puzzles are simple. te kick a lever to sposta platforms o te can use them creatively to get secret items like hats of coins to buy items in stores. How te manipulate the platforms to get all the stuff te want is really fun. I remember feeling pretty smart about myself for solving a vent puzzle near the end of the game. Granted the puzzle itself is easy and I am horrible at puzzles in general but this is a kids game, so I can see children having fun with these puzzles and feeling like they accomplished something on their own. I also really like the art style of the game, despite it being as simplistic as possible. Sure, Hollow Knight and Cuphead are pretty and they will always be praised for their graphics, but just the simple dot eye design of the characters in Pikuniku give them a sort of children's book vibe to be and I really adore it.
That said, the game does not offer too much variety in the gameplay. Solve puzzles, do simple platforming, feel like te are in a crazy story book fever dream and before te know it, the game is over. But the game doesn’t really need that much variety. It is a fun game on it’s own and can still be a lot of fun for short bursts here and there. The game also has a co-op feature which I have not tried out yet, but I hear that it can make the game a lot più fun. I mean, any game is made ten times più fun with co-op, but maybe I’ll do an updated co-op quick review to see how it is. Who knows?
Pikuniku is a very simple, very cute, and very French indie game that doesn’t do anything too crazy o new in indie games aside from feeling like a weird dream te had once, but that’s perfectly fine. Some times it’s nice to review a più simple game that is a lot più chill and laid back than say insanely hard indie titles like Super Meat Boy. It’s charming, it’s pretty funny, and it is not insanely pricey compared to other indie titles (At least not when I bought it. It was on sale for $2 on the Switch). If te are looking for a wacky adventure to play da yourself o with a friend, give Pikuniku a look. te may enjoy yourself

Up next: We’re gonna fight scorpions and ghosts