Donut County (2018)

(3 1/2 stars) I finished Donut County in 2 days and I could've easily played it in one sitting. For that reason, it's a game I would recommend getting on sale, as I don't find there is a big replay value to it. However, I do think it's 100% worth playing.

The gameplay is simple but fun, with some puzzle elements to it that really aren't overly complicated. The story is funny and well written and the characters endearing, even though we only get to spend a short time with them.

I only wish it was longer, because you can tell it was made with love.

Donut County... is a game... and you can play it. It's not bad, it's not great.

I enjoyed the theme and idea they were going for but it quickly wore out the welcome. Painfully annoying/nothingburger dialgoue and concept with basically no challenge or reason to play other than to say you did.

I am sure this game will connect with some people, but I found it to be painfully mediocre. I wasn't able to enjoy it as a truly great thing and I wasn't able to hate it as a truly awful piece of software... and not being able to make me feel anything in particular is probably the reason this feels like a definite "meh I guess"/10

This is one that a lot of people seem to like, but I gotta be honest, I'm not seeing the appeal. Some people even compare it to Katamari (a god-tier game in my book) -- and while I can see the comparison, the quality of gameplay could not be any more different between the two.

In Donut Country, you control a hole in the ground that you move about to make objects fall down into it. The hole gets a bit bigger each time you do (and sometimes very randomly gets a lot bigger, when the game needs it to be a lot bigger). I think the best comparison to make to Donut Country would be walking simulators, but you're a hole walking around instead of a person. Can the object fit? Then it'll fall down. It doesn't fit? Just walk around to something else. That's the entire game, and for me at least it was as tedious and pointless as it sounds like.

You actually spend more time with the story than you do for the actual gameplay... and nothing interesting at all happens for the story. I get the general impression that it's meant to be a silly story, but the comedy never worked for me here. I guess it's an extremely dry humor, but for the most part I never even registered the dialogue as attempts to tell a joke. Everyone falls down the hole, and then they're (vaguely) upset with the naughty racoon responsible... That's the plot, and what's meant to be funny I guess. I say PASS! Go play more Katamari instead.

I've been a fan of the Katamari games since the OG (which is why I thought I'd dig this game), but they're not without their faults, namely how clunky the controls can be with steering/turning or getting caught on stuff. In Donut County, since you're employing a hole rather than rolling up a sticky alien-ball, you're able to avoid this issue entirely. That being said, there's a little more customization and personality to Katamari with the cousins/presents, but Donut County has more "life" with its story.

Movement is really smooth, and other than a few "puzzles" that I was trying to solve in a more difficult way than was actually necessary, gameplay in general is very simple and relaxing.

The game is short, the dialogue is consistently funny, and I really enjoyed all of the characters. I just wish there was a free-roam stage where you can start small and eventually drop the whole town into the hole, like the final stage in Katamari games where you start with erasers and end up rolling up galaxies (which is always my favorite one).

This is exactly what I needed in my current emotional state. I played most of it last night and just finished it up. I needed something kind of mindless that didn't require a lot of focus but would also keep my mind off of things.

I attended a double funeral this morning, for one of my students from two years ago and his older cousin. They were killed in a drive-by a week and a half ago. He was just inside playing video games when the house was shot up. He was an amazing kid who was totally uninvolved in that sort of stuff and I hate this so much.

This simple, charming game is perfect to relax after a stressful day at work. It's a perfect mix of cute raccoon jokes and katamari - esque environment destruction. The simple point-and-click controls are approachable for any age and skill level, but there are plenty of little secrets if you're looking to explore and collect. The music and art is wonderfully cozy - big BMO/Beach City vibes, if you like those kind of cartoons.

I do wish the game was a bit longer - the game can be played all the way through in a few hours, with maybe an extra hour of cleanup for achievements and such - but I've played the game a few times at this point, and it still feels fun and relaxing after a couple playthroughs.

I played this on steam with M+K, but I bet it would be perfect to play on a console, or even on a tablet!

Within just a few years, Annapurna Interactive has almost become the A24 or Neon of video games, a company that I trust to the point that I will play any game with its name on it. Annapurna's games aren't necessarily long or particularly deep, but they're always experiences I'm glad I've played. I particularly think of games like Florence or the little bit of Sayonara Wild Hearts I've explored. These are smaller experiences that feel unlike anything I've played before, experiences that stick with me due to their unique gameplay and engrossing stories.

Donut County is easily the silliest game I've played from Annapurna, a ridiculous story about a raccoon and the holes he dispatches to various people, which end up sending them and all their possessions deep below the surface. The gameplay is entirely reminiscent of Katamari Damacy, with the sense of humor to match. This might be the only game I've ever played where I couldn't wait to read the encyclopedia of items I had found in the game. There's a unique wit and humor to Donut County that alone makes this worthwhile.

Considering the size of the team, Donut County is understandably a small game, and it understands its limitations. This game gets in, has some silly fun, and gets out. Donut County doesn't overstay its welcome, and even with its simple premise, finds ways to expand this concept to keep it fresh over the course of its relatively short runtime.

Donut County also does a fine job of making this story feel larger than it really is. The game digs into the stories of multiple characters, before tying all these characters together with one unified goal. It's so simple, yet effective in how this game builds its little world.

For those looking for a quick, humorous game, I'd highly recommend Donut County. It's short, sweet, pretty cheap, and a consistent joy. So why only three stars? I guess it seems like by the end of Donut County, there should be more. Maybe a new way to tackle levels, or a way to keep up replayability. Donut County is a world I'd love to spend more time with, and yet, after about two hours in this world, I felt like I had already seen everything it had to offer.

But that's also fine! I like that fun little eccentric games like this exist, and I love spending just a few hours in a game and getting the whole experience. I definitely can't wait to see more of what developer Ben Esposito can do, because I'd love to see his style and humor expanded even further.

Donut County has an interesting way of telling the story. I could say the game is split into two portions:

First: Each character tells their own experience from their own point of view.

Second: Then they act to solve their common problem.

This game is short and I am so thankful for it. I like to spend my money on games that can be finished in a few hours or days. For such a short game it has introduced a lot of characters in a very good way. Everyone got enough attention in the story so that you get to know them all.

Thank you for reading my review. 💛

Ricci

While I played on Xbox, Donut County feels the world like a mobile game. And that's fine: I have no issues with mobile gaming. But mobile games can tend to feel very small when thrown up on a TV screen, played with a controller. Not, you know, image size—which is properly scaled—but, rather, in scope.

Donut County throws us into a city where humans and talking animals exist and live together. However, holes have been appearing across the city, dropping whatever fits into the abyss. And, despite the protests of BK, who owns the donut shop, these holes seem to occur every time someone orders donuts for delivery.

The gameplay is simple: You are the hole and you need to gobble up everything on the screen. Start off small, and get bigger as things fall in. That's the basic M.O. from level one through the end. Some light puzzles and a hole upgrade give a bit of texture to the concept, but "gobble and grow" is the overriding philosophy here.

It's oddly satisfying. Starting off a level only able to consume blades of grass or stones, and ending a level with houses and hills tipping in. The fun overrides the samey nature of the gameplay from level to level.

And it's a good thing it is fun, because otherwise there's not a whole lot to recommend here. The graphics are pretty basic. I doubt if they'd sparkle on a phone screen, but at least they wouldn't stick out as egregiously bland; on a console they feel awkward, as if made for a much earlier generation. Meanwhile the levels themselves feel a bit unfocused and unrefined. Like, the idea is there—particularly regarding some of the puzzles—but without having gone through the creative evolution process. Like, this may be a weird comparison, but let's pretend Donut County is an essay. You remember writing essays in school, right? Do the research, write out index cards, make an outline, expand outline into the first draft, etc, etc. If Donut County was an essay, it would be at the outline stage. It's got the ideas, in the right order, but bullet pointed and lacking in content. As such, level designs feel a bit random and haphazard, without ever taking on the big scope the idea demands.

And that all gets compounded by how damn short Donut County feels. I didn't count how many levels there are, but it feels like 10 to 15, and it's not like these are long, ponderous levels with multiple stages. In fact, most of the game's length seems like it boils down to the conversations the characters have in between levels. Arguably, there's a bit of a visual novel feel to it, although I don't think anyone would play Donut County for the dialogue, which feels pretty unnecessary as the story takes a significant backseat to being a hole and gobbling things up.

But the important thing here is that gobbling things up is fun. I wouldn't want to spend much (if any) money on Donut County, but it's currently available on Xbox Game Pass so from that perspective I'm pretty pleased. if you're looking for a low-key casual almost-puzzler to burn a couple of afternoons, Donut County hits that "I just want to see everything fall into a hole" mood.

A lite, entertaining couple of hours of fun , and then you're done. This game is well-suited to Xbox Game Pass, but I wouldn't want to pay more than a couple bucks for it.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the concept of sociopath raccoons banishing an entire town and its residents to the earth's core. And the Garbagepedia descriptions of everyday items from a trash panda's perspective were also pretty funny.

I expected a cute lil' romp through some silly county named after a donut. What I didn't expect was feeling bad for terrorizing random innocent townsanimals and the gentrification undertones. But that's not a bad thing at all! (Here's an article about those gentrification undertones that I found after finishing the game btw: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-donut-county-20180928-story.html)

I went into this knowing nothing about the premise at all, only knew about the matter-guzzling hole. I'm really glad I went into this game almost blind, because I got to experience the bittersweetness of that surprise for myself. I'm sure others have already waxed poetic about the contrasts between playing a silly chaotic game that also asks you to examine possible consequences, so I'll leave it to them...

Gameplay wise, there's nothing no one's already said before. Super simple physics with a cutesy art style, and a completed file only takes a few hours. Good reminder that games don't require lots of complex mechanics to be enjoyable. ( ◜‿◝ )

People complain that this game is too short, but I don't believe that's really its problem. Sure, it's like 2 to 3 hours long, BUT IS THAT REALY A PROBLEM WHEN YOU HAVE A BACKLOG AS HUGE AS THE ONE STARING AT YOU RIGHT NOW???? Lol I'm only (half) joking, though I do believe that would be a nice discussion for another time..

Anyways I think Donut County faces a bigger problem with pacing than it does with its length. It takes too long to introduce its cooler mechanics! You spend the majority of the game just moving the hole around and picking stuff up. It's ridiculously easy and I'm not sure if it could be really called a puzzle. When we start to have some new mechanics and interesting environmental puzzles puff the game ends. I think that if those were more evenly spread out, less people would complain about the game being too short.

A positive part of being this short though it that it doesn't take too long to get to the interesting part. In the mean time you are treated to a whole bunch of amazing music, a great presentation with great art style and to the trashpedia which is pretty funny (funnier than the dialogues to be honest lol).

In the end you're left with an experience that is well worth it! The later stages and ending are very very cool and it has the coolest credit sequence I've seen yet. I give it like a pretty strong 7 me thinks.

A gem! The mechanic is as reminiscent of Katamari Damacy as you've probably heard, but the visuals and writing feel a bit closer to something like Night in the Woods or a David OReilly project. I found it relaxing and fun to play.

I played it on Switch, but I'm not sure I should have. Its traditional controls didn't feel as optimized as I'd hoped, and its length didn't justify the Switch tax. There's a fine line between feeling sad a game is over and feeling disappointed that it's over, and this definitely fell in the latter camp for me.