Have You Played... Pikuniku?
Leg-end
Sure, the puzzles are aggressively average, and the soundtrack is more crappy than wacky, but the story is full of enough heart to make you look past all that. Pikuniku has a clear message: band together and you can initiate change. The Man can’t hold all of you weird blob-things down.
At first, the silly, simplistic CBeebies art style is merely eye-catching. Bright, bold colours and surreal characters are everywhere in this world, as they are in most TV shows vying for your kid’s attention. But, as you progress, you learn that everything isn’t as it seems. This isn’t a game that revolves around frivolities like making a tit out of Daddy Pig. It’s about a town coming together to make things better. There’s also a rhythm-action dance off at one point, too.
Pikuniku marries the absurdity and the inspirational quite well, in fact. I mean, it can’t all be about something grand: you are an armless red bean that can contract their legs at a moment’s notice. And, thankfully, the majority of the gags – even the misses – are pleasant in their own little way.
If you can get over the issues I mentioned above, like the middling puzzles and the off-putting sounds, you’ll have a nice time with Pikuniku. And that’s before you go back to trounce your pal in a few games of Baskick. If you don’t know, it’s like basketball, but it’s football. And, like most everything else in Pikuniku, it’s pretty decent.