Pikuniku Review – YOU ARE PERFECT!

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2018 will be a tough year for indie games on Switch to follow up. Pikuniku takes a confident shot at breaking into the ranks of top indies on the console. What it lacks in complexity it more than makes up for in consistency and humor. Pikuniku may not be on the same level as top indies from last year like Celeste and The Messenger, but it still delivers perfectly on what it aims to do.

In Pikuniku you explore the world as the formerly maligned Piku. The inhabitants of the valley feared the coming of “The Beast” meant the end of their kind. However, after a few kind acts it became clear Piku was just an innocent little scarlet dude. The true menace came from above in the form of the Sunshine Inc.

FREE MONEY EVERYWHERE!

It’s abundantly clear from the start of Pikuniku that Sunshine Inc. isn’t everything they claim to be. The seemingly benevolent company in the sky hands out free money like they’re supermarket samples. Then they take one “lucky” inhabitant of the valley to their volcano. Red flags should be going up all over the place at this point. Yet, the masses are blinded by the ridiculous amounts of useless money they’re receiving.

Before I get in to deep with this ridiculous story, I should say that the humor of the writing is far superior. I didn’t care if Piku and the team of rebels he met were going to overthrow Sunshine Inc. I was much more interested in the hilarity of the journey. While you can have both an intriguing plot and funny writing in some instances, I can overlook a story that only hits on one note. The important thing is that that it delivers a consistently funny script. If you’re looking for a poignant allegorical statement on the dangerousness of huge corporations, look much further than Pikuniku. If you take this goofy story at face value, then you’ll have a good time.

BASKICK CHAMPIONSHIP!

For a game that presents itself as being incredibly simple, Pikuniku’s gameplay delivers the goods. By that I mean it’s good, not great, but still much better than I was anticipating. The first moment I realized the possibilities with such simple controls was during a game of Baskick — an amalgamation of basketball and kick. It’s essentially a game of basketball played only with your feet. It’s a simple idea, but it’s not something I could ever claim I would’ve thought of.

The simplicity of the controls in Pikuniku lend themselves to creative mini-games. The major controls you have are movement, jump, kick, and crouch. The crouch turns you into a ball which functions similarly — with a few exceptions — to Samus’ Morph Ball of Metroid fame.

Besides the entertaining mini-games each boss fight is unique. The main goal each time is to destroy Sunshine Inc’s robots which are stealing precious resources. However, every robot is collecting a different resource which always finds a way to work itself into impacting the battle. In the forest you volley explosive pinecones to destroy the logging robot. The water-sucking robot is bested by clogging its straw causing it to burst from sucking too hard. Again, it’s not anything genre-defining, but it’s a fun and creative way to keep the game interesting.

System reviewed on: Nintendo Switch.

Disclaimer: A review code for Pikuniku was provided by Tinsley-PR.