There are coins to collect, hidden paths to explore, and trophies to find, but the real joy of the game is figuring out what you can get away with. Your interactions with the environments are, as I say, limited to jumping, rolling (by pulling in your legs), activating switches/talking, jumping and swinging. Subversive storytelling aside, the world of Pikuniku is a delight to explore. But then you encounter Sunrise, Inc., a company made up of robots and flying drones that promises everyone FREE MONEY just for the privilege of sucking up, oh, all their resources and and homes. This tone goes on for a bit as you complete minor quests. Except they almost immediately realize you’re harmless, and apologize. Then you encounter a village terrified of Piku because you fit the description of “The Beast” from legends. Your first encounter is with a ghost who just wants you to wake up and get moving. In fact, Pikuniku will lull you in with a sense of how harmless the game is. Seemingly everything in the world has a texture and tone as you move through it, full of delight, soft shapes, and color. Welcome to a wonderfully simple, delightfully odd game where you play Piku, a red dot who walks, rolls, jumps, and kicks his way through a landscape built on the concept of “sproing.” In fact, Pikuniku may be the sproingiest game I’ve ever played-walk through flowers in the 2D world and they bend and pop back, kick acorns and they bounce off trees, jump past lanterns and they swing and chime. And, in doing so, Ernie reinforces the great lesson of Pikuniku: “Maybe this problem can be solved by kicking.” Ernie drank nuclear waste and turned into a bloated, bright green blob with the consistency of a water balloon. Ernie is the son of the gigantic worm with whom you’ve joined forces to defeat an evil corporation that’s draining all your corn, trees, and, in her case, water. There’s a point about halfway through Pikuniku where you meet Ernie.
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