Pikuniku 
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The lovely Pikuniku is free on the Epic Games Store at the moOct 2, 2020 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun This may be the month of ghosts and ghoulies, but we should still make time for gags and good times. To that end, do grab this week’s Epic Games Store freebie if so inclined, it’s Pikuniku. Released last year, it’s a lovely platforming explore-o-puzzler starring a wee blob with little kicking legs. Frankly, just watching those sticky feet is enough to cheer me up. And it’s good. And it’s free to keep. So that’s good. (more…) Next week's free game from Epic revealedSep 24, 2020 - PCGamesNAnother Thursday is here, which means another round of free PC games from the Epic Store. Right now, you can grab RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition from the store, and while next week's selection won't tickle your nostalgia bones in quite the same way, it's an excellent one. Pikuniku is a comedic puzzle platformer where you play as a little blob dude out to save a cutesy world from a dystopian deep state conspiracy. It's a jaunty little adventure that's just a few hours long, which makes it a perfect pickup as a freebie. It's genuinely very funny, which is all-too-rare in videogames, and it's got a catchy soundtrack to boot. You'll be able to hit the Epic promotion page to grab Pikuniku on October 1 at 8:00 PDT / 11:00 EDT / 16:00 BST, and will be available until October 8 at those same times. As always, you'll be able to 'purchase' the game at a price tag of zero, at which point it'll be tied to your Epic library forever. Read the rest of the story... Daily Deal - Pikuniku, 92.4% OffJan 24, 2020 - AnnouncementToday's Deal: Save 92.4% on Pikuniku!* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time Joyous jump em up Pikuniku is out nowJan 24, 2019 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Lovely platformer Pikuniku, which our John was gushing about only the other day, today launched for all of us to enjoy. Which is good, because it’s good. Great legs on this lad too. A cracking kick. “Oh gosh, this is lovely,” is our John said in his Pikuniku review, and what I remember of playing an early version yonks again lines up with that. Though I don’t remember a dance-off against a robot. (more…) Pikuniku review - a brilliantly breezy, genuinely funny puzzle platformerJan 22, 2019 - EurogamerKid's TV shows, you've no doubt discussed with friends while waiting for someone to come back from the all-night garage with a packet of french fancies and a fresh packet of skins, can be kind of sinister. Not just your straight-up, in your face Chocky sinister either; beneath the primary colours and blunt language of many a show there's the feeling that something's not quite right. Which is part of the thrill - the weird, messy thrill - of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared, the YouTube phenomenon that starts off BBC and then goes full Current 93, a nursery rhyme whose occult roots crack through all the sweetness. It is amazing, and if Pikuniku - a puzzle platformer for PC and Switch that's being published by Devolver - never goes quite as dark, it's definitely drinking from the same well. And it, too, is amazing, a joyous, smart and imaginative adventure that's the rarest of things: a genuinely funny video game. There's the strong influence of Keita Takahashi's work in its aesthetic, though Pikuniku has a voice all of its own. There's warmth and wit in the characters that you come across - you play The Beast, a blob on two legs that emerges from a cave at the outset of Pikuniku and stumbles upon a cartoon world beholden to an awful conspiracy as it suffers at the hands of the corporation Sunshine Inc. Read more… Pikuniku reviewJan 21, 2019 - PC GamerI first saw Pikuniku at EGX. On a show floor you can’t really appreciate nuance so I’ll be honest, it was the bright, round characters which drew me over. I stayed because I could kick things with my character’s little red legs. I didn’t have enough time to get much more than that, so when it came to the review it was such a lovely moment to realise it wasn’t actually a Wattam-style interactive toy, but a little dystopian tale wearing a Mr Men and Little Miss storybook aesthetic. After an opening cinematic where a pink cloud offers you free money, you, a little red blob with legs, wake up in a cave on a hill overlooking a town. A useful exposition ghost prompts you to head into the fresh air so you can start exploring the 2D world. Jumping, rolling, strolling and kicking are your primary forms of interaction. At first you’re just playing with them, perhaps enjoying the fact you can go a bit faster if you pull your legs in and roll, or bouncing around, trying to kick anything in the environment. The local villagers believed you to be a scary beast and are not entirely sure how to handle the fact that you’re actually smaller than them, not threatening beyond delivering grumpy toddler-style kicks and pushes, and don’t look anything like their local beast lore descriptions. They settle on imprisoning you until you agree to repair the rope bridge connecting the village to the village crops (which you broke by bouncing on it) so that the villagers can tend their corn and be rewarded with rains of cash from the pink cloud. What evolves from there is a cheery tale of endearingly bumbling and adorably illustrated violent resistance against a deep state social cleansing conspiracy. Despite that premise, the tone never tips over into insufferable didacticism. Instead it remains at “more affable and PG version of a Dr Evil plot from Austin Powers” for the duration. Supporting that tone, the rest of the cast of characters have that specifically 2010s slight archness to them which keeps them from becoming twee. For example, after kicking a couple of eggs I found in a nest and watching the chicks they contained flap off, a mother bird descended. She demanded to know whether I kicked the eggs and I chose to deny all knowledge. I was still standing in the nest and she replied “What do you mean it wasn’t you?? Your feet are still on the shells!” Rounding up the chicks to make amends, one of them turned out to be a huffy teen (“why can’t I have my own life already”) and the other was fully conversant in self-help speak (“it’s true we haven’t bonded very much lately”). Basic platforming is the canvas against which these little interactions play out. At first that’s jumping from ledge to ledge and pushing or kicking objects. Later you can start swapping your hats or using different objects to trigger new intera...Wot I Think: PikunikuJan 21, 2019 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun Developer: Sectordub Publisher: Devolver DigitalRelease: 24th Jan On: Windows, Mac, Linux From: Itch, Steam, GOG Price: TBA Do you remember those jelly-like toy octopuses you had when you were a kid, which you throw at a window or wall? They’d half-stick/half-walk their way down the surface, their legs glooping on and off as they rolled in a semi-controlled fall. That’s what the character in the ridiculously delightful Pikuniku most immediately reminds me of. It’s just the way he walks. It’s the most adorable thing there is. And he kicks too. (more…) Pikuniku, a 'delightfully dystopian' puzzle game, releases later this monthJan 10, 2019 - PC GamerDescribed as a "delightful dystopian adventure", Pikuniku is a vibrantly coloured puzzle game with a cheerful-but-knowing Adult Swim mood about it. Published by Devolver, it'll launch on Steam and GOG on January 24. As far as I can tell, it's all about guiding a charming long-legged blob through an open-ended cartoon world. This long-legged blob will need to help various other blob-like characters solve a series of hilarious condundrums. The protagonist blob is presumably more capable of solving problems thanks to the length of their legs (they're long). In the publisher's words: "help peculiar characters overcome struggles, uncover a deep state conspiracy, and start a fun little revolution in this delightful dystopian adventure!" The game lasts around 4-5 hours and can be played cooperatively in local multiplayer. Check out the trailer below:
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