NOCLIP Pocket E40 - Felt Like A Sandwich - Donut County

This podcast has great tunes and water balloons. Welcome back to
NOCLIP Pocket, where we are making our way through every twee indie
game that has made its way to the Switch, apparently. Seriously
though, Donut County channels the gameplay energy of Katamari
Damacy, or I guess Feeding Frenzy, through a much less chaotic,
more relaxed style and into a world that is characterized by clever
writing and likeable characters. Well, sometimes the characters are
unlikeable, but in a fun way. This writing, which made us realize
we may be closer to the nursing home than we had previously
assumed, is what brings the game its levity, having less vim and
vigor and more of an ironic shoegazy feel with conversations had
through text nearly indistinguishable from those had face to face.
Along with the games simplistic yet pretty absurd plotline,
everything meshes together to create an aesthetic that feels very
complete. We’re going to talk about gameplay complexity and how we
wished the game would ramp up or maintain its more intricate puzzle
elements, how the writing style deviates from the norm in a way
that may reveal the path forward rather than stand out as a
novelty, and what you can say that could justifiably get you kicked
out of a restaurant. Thank you for joining us again this week!
Despite coming out a few years ago, this game only recently came to
our attention and fit into that nook of things we are confused and
intrigued by, and I can’t say we were disappointed. Did the game’s
indie charm work for you, or were you curmudgeonly grumbling about
it’s frequent use of “lol”? Let us know on Discord or in the
comments below! Next time, we’re going to be entering Mystery May,
one of the traditions we’ve managed to keep going, and talking
about Telling Lies the successor to perennial favorite Her Story,
so we hope you’ll join us for that, as well as the other perplexing
titles we’re going to be talking about next month.