Donut County

[illdog]

Odd that Blakey just posted a picture in the Latest Purchase thread as I just finished this myself today. Its only a couple of hours long.

The immediate comparison in my mind was Katamari Damacy where as you move something around and as you add to the thing you're moving it gets bigger. In this case it's a hole. The more that goes in the bigger the hole gets and the bigger the things you can swallow. It's more set pieces in opposition to Katamari's sprawling playscape and Donut County is much more story driven.

 

Its about a racoon called BK and his pal, a young lady called Mira. Using an app on his phone that controls the moving hole, BK has basically swallowed up the town including himself and Mira. Turns out the Earth is hollow and all the townsfolk have gathered together underground to try to figure a way out. The levels you play are flashbacks leading up to the current event.

 

In the levels themselves you move the whole around, swallowing things up. Each level is split in to little areas and sometimes the hole size resets, depending on the goal. Also there are puzzle elements. Like in the second level you need to launch a hot air balloon by swalling a flaming kiln. The hole then emitts hot air so you can lift the balloon and end the level. It gets more complicated than that obviously but you get the picture.

 

BK the racoon is quite funny, he's a selfish cunt to comedy effect. The games humour continues in the Trashapedia which is basically a log book of all the shit you pick up with amusing(ish) descriptions.

 

So yea, its nice. Looks nice, nice music. You know, nice. It's just quite short. I liked it though, my kind of game. Nice.

 

 

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Put an hour or so in earlier myself and I pretty much immediately liked its sense of humour and irreverence. 

 

I honestly didn't know this had any plot to it at all before I bought it, all I'd seen of the gameplay was the main hole-swallowing-objects mechanic in play and that was pretty much enough to sell me on it but as soon as I dived in and I realised it has this Night in the Woods style and sense of humour to it, it had already won me over really.

 

@illdog's covered the main plot details so I won't go into them at length, all I'll say is that playing as BK the Raccoon in a flashback style playing this hole app that swallows people and towns/objects is fucking rad and all the characters around the campfire have so much character, he's got such an irreverence about him and I love the constant denials he doles out when anyone accuses him of anything   The Trashopedia you can explore after a level is features some fucking great little jokes and takes on objects we all take for granted every day too.

 

The gameplay is very basic - you just move around a hole and it swallows things up - but the mechanics just feel so nice and simple to control. The most surprising thing about it is how relaxing it is, I never really wanted a stage to end because it was cathartic hoovering up all these objects and people in hilarious fashion. I was a little worried about playing on my iPad as I thought my finger would get in the way of the hole and the whole swallowing-towns stuff wouldn't feel as good but luckily it has felt very intuitive throughout and feels perfect for a touchscreen. 

 

Some pics:

 

Spoiler

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Finished this today, took me around 2 hours total.

 

Ended up absolutely loving it, so much so that it is probably one of my GOTYs of 2018 so far. 

 

As touched upon in my previous post I think it's just the sense of style and irreverent humour that gave everything such a strong personality, it would've been easy to just make the hole-swallowing game and leave it there but it is wrapped around this really engaging overarching plot with a ton of really interesting characters that you gradually learn more about over the course of the game. Even though the game is so short I was besotted with the two Protagonists - Mira and BK - in that time (way more than some lengthy AAA games managed in their duration). They were just so cool and likeable with a really interesting dynamic, loveable banter and wicked sense of humour between the two.

 

The game is just so damn funny. When it begins you think to yourself that they're forcing the humour a bit but after a few cutscenes and levels that all goes away and I found myself laughing at almost every line of dialogue and mad scenario cooked up next. The finale - which I won't spoil - in particular is so damn hilarious and absurd that I just spent every single second of it grinning like a Cheshire Cat. 

 

If there's one mobile game (it's also available on PS4 and PC I believe) you buy this year, buy this one, it's well worth your £5 and then some. Cannot recommend it enough.

 

[illdog]

I liked it but I didn’t think it was all that funny. I’d heard it was so maybe it was too hyped up for me and I was expecting too much.

 

However, the back and forth between Mirand BK reminded me a little of Jake and Finn from Adventure Time. Also, the feeling of the game as a whole had s very slight Night in the Woods vibe. 

 

I wanna play Night in the Woods again.

[retroed]

 

[merman1974]

Want to play this, but it will undoubtedly pop up in a Steam sale soon and be better value...

[AndyKurosaki]

I need to get around to finishing this at some point. I got stuck halfway through,became sidetracked and not played it since.

 

I wouldn’t say it was overly funny as such, but it had me laugh a few times.

[DANGERMAN]

I played through this yesterday, I liked it. The only bit that really made me laugh was the first duck conversation I had, but it's likable enough. I wish there was more to the game though, it's nice enough to play but there's no real challenge until the last section which has some slight puzzle elements, I think it probably needed more of that, some more inventiveness

 

It's alright though, bit expensive for what it is but that's the way with this sort of thing