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Pikuniku

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Pikuniku
Nintendo Switch digital artwork, featuring Piku, Niku, Mr. Sunshine, a Sunshine Inc robot, the pink rebel, a villager, the worm and some birds
Developer(s)Sectordub
Publisher(s)Devolver Digital
Designer(s)Arnaud De Bock
Programmer(s)
  • Rémi Forcadell
  • Alan Zucconi
Artist(s)Arnaud De Bock
Writer(s)Rémi Forcadell
Composer(s)Calum Bowen
EngineUnity
Platform(s)Linux
macOS
Microsoft Windows
Nintendo Switch
Xbox One
Google Stadia
ReleaseLinux, macOS, Windows, Switch
January 24, 2019
Xbox One
March 12, 2020
Stadia
February 9, 2021
Genre(s)Puzzle, adventure
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Pikuniku is a puzzle adventure video game developed by French-British indie collective Sectordub and published by Devolver Digital. It was released on January 24, 2019 for Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows, and was later released on March 12, 2020 for Xbox One and on February 9, 2021 for Stadia.

The player controls the titular red creature, Piku, through a colorful world, to put an end to a plot to harvest the entirety of the land's resources[1][2] and save the creatures of the island.

It received generally positive reviews from critics, with its main criticism being the short length of the game.[3]

Gameplay

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Pikuniku is a puzzle and adventure game[4] where the player must control the main character, Piku, through levels and solve puzzles to progress. The majority of puzzles involve kicking and pushing objects onto switches to open doors and access rooms, allowing the player to proceed through the level. Piku can also lasso his legs to swing from hooks or curl into a ball and roll, allowing the player to move around faster and reach higher or previously inaccessible areas. Throughout the game, the player will encounter villagers, who they can interact with, and spend coin currency earned in the game's levels on items such as hats.

The game also features a local cooperative mode with 9 levels, and the second player controlling Niku, an orange creature similar to Piku. Both of the players must cooperate to navigate themselves to a boat at the end of the level.[1][5]

Synopsis

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The game begins with the protagonist, Piku, waking up from his slumber in a cave. After venturing to a nearby village, locals become scared of Piku. They lock him up in a cage calling him a 'ghastly beast of legend', settling on imprisoning him until he agrees to fix the town bridge, which he accidentally destroyed. After repairing the bridge and being set free from imprisonment, the town enlists him to help deal with the entrepreneurial Mr. Sunshine, a pink creature similar to Piku, who attempts to harvest the entirety of the world's natural resources for his own wealth.[1][6][7]

Plot

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The game opens with a commercial in which the character Mr. Sunshine, a pink creature in a top hat, offers to give the island's citizens "free money" in exchange for their "junk". He collects the "junk" by using his giant robots, but what he collects is actually valuable resources, such as food, for the citizens of the island.

Afterwards, Piku is awakened by a ghost in a nearby cave. The ghost is kind to Piku and tells him that he needs to leave the cave. After he comes out, he discovers that he's actually been erroneously painted by a legend as a dark beast, and after accidentally breaking a bridge, he is put in a cage by the frightened inhabitants of the nearby village. However, Piku is let free after the villagers decide he is harmless because he agrees that he will fix the bridge.

Once Piku has earned the townsfolk's trust by fixing the bridge, he explores the area, soon encountering a flying robot which sucks up all the corn the townspeople have been growing and scatters free money to placate them. Mr. Sunshine is on board, and offers to take a member of the crowd back for a tour of his volcano base. He chooses a townsperson called Eli, who is picked up by the robot and taken away.

Piku then travels through a colorful world and reaches a forest, where he finds another robot chopping down all the trees. He helps three leaf-life forest village who are trapped in trees and can't brings them down. Piku dance-battles a robot and wins, showing that he is not a spy of Mr. Sunshine. The three forest villages trust Piku and let him join them. Their team is called the Resistance, and their base is an abandoned underground metro station. Together, they destroy a tree-chopping robot.

Afterwards, the Resistance are approached by a worm asking for help because the water in his home has dried up. The group suspect Sunshine Inc.'s involvement and decide to help, using the newly reactivated metro system to reach the lake. When they get there, they find that the robots have built a dam and one is sucking up all the water with a straw. The Resistance head underground into the mines to meet the worms.

Mother, a giant worm, recounts how the worms have been suffering due to the lack of the lake's water, which they use to drink and bathe. Before helping Piku, she asks them to rescue her child Ernie. They find that he drank too much green water from a pipe further underground and he becomes too full of liquid to move. While transporting him through the cave, Piku discovers a room full of charred bodies of creatures that resemble Mr. Sunshine, and the worm reveals they were killed by an erupting volcano after mining too close to it. Once Ernie is brought back to his mother, the worms assist Piku in destroying Mr. Sunshine's last robot.

The final portion of the game takes place inside Mr. Sunshine's underground base, where he is plotting to destroy the surrounding land by covering it with lava in order to establish a new city populated with "perfect" inhabitants made by splicing people together. However, these inhabitants appear to be unable to move or communicate on their own.

After leaving the laboratory, Piku reaches a pit over live magma where Mr. Sunshine tries to have him killed. Piku avoids Mr. Sunshine's robot's lasers until his robotic henchmen piloting it go on a strike after discovering they aren't equally paid. Suddenly, Ernie comes to the rescue by rolling into the pit and letting Piku use his body as a platform to jump out of it. Piku chases Mr. Sunshine over the magma, avoiding popcorn launched from the latter's motorboat. Upon arriving at a dead end, Mr. Sunshine presses a button that makes the volcano erupt, but the lava is so unexpectedly powerful that they are both ejected into the atmosphere on a platform.

Piku kicks Mr. Sunshine into space. A mysterious being rescues Piku, informing him of his mission's outcome before sending him safely back to the base. Piku leaves along with the other Resistance members, and wakes up back in the cave.

After the story's events, the player can explore an altered post-game world where everything appears to be going well.

Reception

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Pikuniku received "generally favorable reviews" on the Nintendo Switch[3] and "mixed or average reviews" on the PC version of the game, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[8]

Accolades

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The game achieved multiple nominations and selections, including "Best International Indie Game" at the Pégases Awards 2020,[13] "Excellent in Audio" at the Independent Games Festival (IGF) 2019,[14] "The Innovation Games Award 2019,[15]" and official selections at the XOXO Festival in 2018[16] and the PAX East Indie Megabooth in 2018.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Lane, Gavin (January 21, 2019). "Pikuniku Review (Switch eShop)". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  2. ^ Walker, John (January 21, 2019). "Pikuniku Review Rock Paper Shotgun". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c "Pikuniku for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
  4. ^ "𝗣𝗜𝗞𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗞𝗨". PIKUNIKU. Retrieved May 10, 2025.
  5. ^ a b Devore, Jordan (January 21, 2019). "Review: Pikuniku". Destructoid. Archived from the original on February 3, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Warr, Philippa (January 21, 2019). "Pikuniku review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  7. ^ Sheppard, James (January 21, 2019). "Pikuniku Review The Indie Game Website". The Indie Game Website. Archived from the original on January 23, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  8. ^ a b "Pikuniku for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 26, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  9. ^ Saunders, Toby (January 24, 2019). "Pikuniku review | The good kind of red pill". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on January 25, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  10. ^ O'Connor, James (January 21, 2019). "Pikuniku Review - Tasty Morsel". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 23, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
  11. ^ Carnbee (January 27, 2019). "Test : Pikuniku : Du puzzle, de la plate-forme et des sourires". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Archived from the original on January 31, 2019. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  12. ^ Rudek, Jordan (January 21, 2019). "Pikuniku Review - Review". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on January 25, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  13. ^ "All the categories (2020)". Pégases Awards. February 7, 2020. Archived from the original on March 3, 2020. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
  14. ^ Independent Games Festival (July 19, 2019). "INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL FINALISTS & WINNERS : Honorable Mentions".
  15. ^ "We congratulate the 2019 Ludicious Awards Nominees!". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  16. ^ @mathewolson (September 12, 2018). "All Work And All Play Makes XOXO's Arcade A Good Time | Digg". digg.com. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  17. ^ Macy, Seth G. (March 9, 2018). "PAX East 2018: Enormous Indie MegaBooth Line-Up Announced With 100 Games". IGN. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
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