Pikuniku's world of adorable dystopian anarchy arrives January 24th
Platform puzzler Pikuniku looks adorable, like a Mr. Men book squashed down into even more sharp, geometric simplicity. Beneath the surface apparently lies discontent, some mean-spirited characters and "a deep state conspiracy", although even that seems cute and cuddly given that aesthetic. There's also ghosts and a robot dance party at some point. Developers Sectordub are a small collaborative group including folks who worked on fantasy Tinder-like Reigns and the similarly cute time trial FPS Lovely Planet. The game lands on January 24th - peek at the trailer below.
Brendy took a peek at Pikuniku at Gamescom last year and drew similar comparisons to Mr. Men. It's a bright and anarchic world of grumpy little characters and misunderstandings, where your clever puzzle solutions to problems may get you a bellowed rebuke instead of praise. It's a world for children, but written by ever-so-slightly jaded grown-ups. But grumpy as they can be, it's still silly, and adorable, and in the end it'll probably all work out for the best. Maybe. And even if it doesn't, there's that whole robot dance party to look forward to.
The more knockabout physics-driven fun in the trailer reminds me of the lovely Locoroco, and it looks like it's not too worried about sticking to one genre for any length of time. Basketball, racing, apparently Dig Dug and other antics are on the cards, including some (optional) local co-op fun. Anything that lets you harmlessly punt your pals across half the screen like they're made of polystyrene is good in my books. The multiplayer is unsurprisingly local-only, but offers its own set of levels and challenges to goof around in, separate from the main story.
Pikuniku bounds, rolls and lands on PC with a splat on January 24th. You can find it on Steam, GOG and Itch for $12.99/£10.29/€10.79. It's published by Devolver Digital.