Recent reviews by Chip'em'ups

Manic, joyful, and the kind of hard where you say "one more time" instead of raging.

Cannot recommend highly enough

This game is an absolute joy. Endlessly creative, profoundly funny, and on the main very finely crafted. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling the fun, except to say that this game is well worth the money. I expected five hours of entertainment; I'm five hours in streaming to my friends and we've got several hours to go yet.

What a riot.

Charming, intuitive, and pretty. Plays like a really good book of crossword puzzles. Should be a no-brainer for less than $5 if you're into puzzle games.

I strongly suggest that anyone with the slightest antropological bent watch this game as soon as possible. I say watch because the gameplay is pretty run-of-the-mill puzzle-platforming and earns this recommendation almost wholly on the back of the excellent documentary footage (the "cultural insights") and the art direction.

The art direction is stunning. As I parsed the occasional glitch or two what kept me playing was the visual appeal of the game. The 3D models are tolerable and appropriately adorable for a game about a fox and a little girl, but the game's backgrounds and use of cultural imagery really make a generic-playing game look and feel special. There's love and heart in this game and its apparent in the art, in the music, and in the in-game narration. This is a very simple game being used as a platform to demonstrate this culture.

And, you know what? I'm cool with that. The idea of a game showcasing a community rarely given public space to talk about who they are is a decent one with a lot of potential. This is hopefully an early trailblazer both in terms of game development strategies and in terms of cultural connection. The 24 videos contained in the game are sometimes touching, as with the story of the girl riding a polar bear or memories of playing with Arctic Fox. They are sometimes informative, as are the ones discussing the importance of words like Sila or the stories of the Little People. They are all entertaining. The idea of playing a documentary like this is both interesting and reasonably well-applied here.

I look forward to this studio's next effort and applaud them for this game. While it hardly pushes envelopes with its platforming, it is a welcome change of scenery and a well put together exploration of the peoples of the Arctic. If you have no interest in these people, you will have no interest in this game. If this idea interests you, however, I strongly suggest you support this game and encourage this nascent genre of indigenous storytelling.