Developer: Ben Esposito
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Reviewed on: iPhone 6
Purchased.
Donut County is a funny little game full of holes. It primarily retells the destruction of the titular town at the hands of BK, a racoon who is selling donuts to buy a remote controlled quadcopter. The gameplay is simple and extremely satisfying, but the real star of show is the dialogue. With it’s cast of unique characters at the forefront, it’s silly, satirical story unfolds in amazing fashion.
You are first introduced to BK and Mira through a text message conversation. They’re relationship is one of a long-term friendship, where insults and jabs are sent without pause. I was immediately taken aback by how legitimate their conversations felt. As the player all you’re doing it hitting the “Reply” button, while the text messages auto fill. Even though it’s a scripted conversation, it unfolds naturally, you even have a silly duck emoji button that you can spam, which will cause them to send one back to you. This natural dialogue and character interaction is maintained through out the whole game and it’s honestly one of the best parts of the game.
You see, BK owns a donut shop in town and is trying to earn enough money to buy a quadcopter drone, and he will do anything to get it. This includes using the donut holes from all the donuts he makes to consume the entire town. Exactly how this works is left ambiguous, but the point is that BK can control this ever-growing, all consuming hole via remote, and so can you.
I played Donut County on an iPhone and have to say that moving the hole around with the touch screen was a delight. It’s incredibly satisfying to consume small items, watching the hole grow, so you can consume bigger objects, and even characters. Eventually it gets big enough to swallow up entire houses and even mountains. Each level is small, lasting at most three to four minutes, and there isn’t a lot in the way challenge. They do introduce some clever physics puzzles, but most levels are pretty straight forward. The gameplay concepts will be immediately recognizable to anyone who’s played a Katamari game.
After completing a level you are presented with a level up screen as all the objects and people you consumed fall down into the Earth. This screen is pointless as you have to consume everything in order to end the level, so you will always level up the exact same amount no matter what you do. It’s more of a guide to let you know how far along in the game you are, as once you hit level 10, BK gets his quadcopter. The real star of this screen, however, is the Trashpedia. Every item you consume gets added to the game’s Trashpedia and the descriptions of each item are written by BK, so they’re from the point of view of a racoon who eats garbage. It’s really well written and funny like the rest of the game.
Once underground you get filled in on the story. You see, all the citizens of Donut County that have been consumed by the hole are held up 999 feet below the town and are telling their stories through flashblacks. Everyone is obviously mad at BK for causing the calamity, and the conversations that unfold are by far the best part of the game. I won’t spoil much, but suffice it to say BK’s self-centered, “I don’t care” attitude combined the game’s overall high quality of writing create some hilarious moments.
The game’s simple visual style and pastel color palette add to the game’s charm. Once you see a character react, or rather not react, to getting sucked up by the giant hole you’ll understand how far the simple style can go. The visuals are also paired with an amazing soundtrack, which sets the mood for each level, which is typically low key and laid back. However, it does pick up near the end when the action ramps up and the stakes get high.
Donut County is a great example of a single artist’s cohesive vision being brought to life. It’s silly, charming, satisfying, and beautiful. The story is goofy, but is also a pretty good satire of capitalism and selfishness. It’s cast of characters feel legitimate and contemporary. While simple, the gameplay is satisfying and clever. It’s all wrapped up in a great looking and sounding package. Every bite of Donut County is an enjoyable, wholesome experience.
