Pikuniku

my kiddo likes it. thats enough for me.

An excellent modern portrayal of Karl Marx's "The Communist Manifesto" wrapped in a cute mushroom trip. 10/10

I really really really like this game. It makes me feel happy.

a pretty game.
i had a lot of fun playing this with my nephew.
No blood with good moral lessons.
It gets much trickier if you want to get all the achivement but focusing only on finishing the story would take 3 hours maximum.
it feels like a picnic with little kids.
Recommended.

el bunko

PikuNiku is a bizarre adventure wrapped in an adorable aesthetic with some anti-capitalism glitter scattered on top. Given the silly nature of the game, I can almost guarantee that you will be entertained. However, perhaps more attention should have been spent on the gameplay as it is quite basic and has little replay value.
Side note: I still have no clue why the game is called PikuNiku (picnic in Japanese).
Played with Playstation 4 controller and my lovely partner
Positive:
PikuNiku emanates fun. The game immediately sets the tone by blasting you with an over-the-top slapstick cutscene, which is then followed by nonsensical events, silly characters, and countless bizarre encounters (battling giant toast, to name one). I never doubted that entertainment was the main focus of the game, from the wonky walk to ? soundtrack (don’t get me wrong, the soundtrack suits the game perfectly). Yet out of all the peculiarities, discovering the dancing insects was my favorite feature.
Neutral:
Only about 3 hours of gameplay for the singleplayer adventure. I personally find that slapstick humor doesn’t work more than once. If you know what's coming, suddenly the humor is lost. This happens to be the case with PikuNiku, rendering away any sort of replay value. This is further enforced by the lack of a chapter select option, mediocre minigames, and a limited endgame (discussed in further detail below).
There’s also a co-op mode but this also comes with its drawbacks. In adventure mode, there aren’t any instances (that I can recall) that require precision with the kick, which is great since the kick is unpredictable and unreliable at best. This is not the case in co-op. I came across many segments that required very precise kicking and ball relocation. Honestly this is a strange design choice if the purpose is to have fun. Needless to say, I did not spend much time playing this mode.
Some items have no function, namely the doll and postcard that you can buy. Perhaps this is another jab at capitalism but the postcard seems like a missed opportunity. The ghost who guides you in the beginning asks you to send him postcards and there are numerous mailboxes around the world so my immediate thought is that it should be usable. Sadly it was confirmed by the developers that it cannot be sent. Perhaps this feature was removed?
Negative:
I really dislike that the developers chose not to add a chapter select option after completing the game. This is another feature (or lack thereof) that makes little sense to me since there is little to do in the endgame, discounting a few tedious minigames. Furthermore, there are missable collectables scattered throughout the adventure, which can only be collected if you restart the game. I am especially sour about this because the game deletes all your progress if you start a new game (mind you there are no save slots either). Yes, you will have to recollect every trophy/insect you had already found.
Near the end of the game there is a paddleboat chase segment that is uncharacteristically unforgiving. The villain can sometimes shoot projectiles faster than you can jump again and if you get hit once you have to start the ~2 minute segment over. Given the simple controls, forgiving gameplay, and focus on humor I had assumed this game was developed with younger audiences or inexperienced gamers in mind. I don’t see the point in making the final segment so frustrating.

Verdict:
★★★☆☆ One-hit wonder
PikuNiku is great… if you play it once and only once. Perhaps I’ve had enough of games rely too heavily on humor rather than gameplay. Overall it’s entertaining and worth several good chuckles but sadly is also littered with poor design choices that end up taking away from the experience. Would maybe recommend to younger audiences or anyone looking for something mindlessly humorous.
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I played the co-op section of this game. It’s short, only took us two hours to complete but my god, they were nearly the best two hours of my life. I came away from this game with my cheeks hurting from too much smiling and laughing and feeling incredibly close to my boyfriend. I don’t know how much that’s worth to you, but I got one copy and played via remote play, so it cost me £2.57 in total. The best money I’ve spent in my life. I’m honestly begging you, if you want to have fun with your partner, try this. It’s brilliant. If I could give it 10, nay 100 thumbs up I could. Since I can’t I’ll just have to implore you to give it a go!!!