खबरें
Keywe is a feathered, friendly co-op game
E
Elise Avery
Keywe fits where others have failed because it's friendly, frantic, and cute. My sister and I had a great time with it. Imagine Overcooked, but you’re New Zealand’s national animal, and instead of cooking, you’re running a mail room.
The game cycles between four types of challenges, all of which are easier if the two player-controlled Kiwis split up and communicate what they’re doing. At the beginning of the game, that means using your feathered behinds to type out telegram messages on a keyboard that moves around the mailroom, or sorting incoming mail. By the end of the game, you’re typing while giving out candy to trick or treating cassowaries and pasting together letters from individual words during a blizzard.
The game constantly introduces new hazards to keep the formula fresh and push you and your partner just a little further, but the punishment for failure is gentle. If you fall into a pit or get frozen, you’ll parachute in, losing a few seconds, but you’ll rarely lose much progress. Tight teamwork helps a lot, but if one player isn’t doing well on a given day, they’ll still be able to help out. Even if you fall a dozen times, the game’s timer is generous, so you’ll probably scrape by with a bronze rating.
The faster you complete your tasks, the higher your rating, and the more stamps you acquire, which you can spend on customizing your Kiwi. If you’re a fan of birds, all the good feather patterns are here, including bones, rainbow, kakapo, and puffin. Even if you’re not a big bird enthusiast, there are plenty of ridiculous and cute clothing items to unlock, including ones hidden in certain levels. This meant we had a reason to aim for higher scores, and could take a brief break between levels so my sister and I could switch up our avian fashion.
When my sister got bored, or our play session was over, we’d head to the game’s overtime shifts: minigames which offer stamps and unique clothing to unlock. They add a nice bit of variety to a game that already has plenty, letting you stretch your tiny kiwi legs outside of the mailroom. Popping bubbles with your butt or throwing mail from the back of a larger bird aren't exactly mechanically deep, but they round out the game's cooperative antics.
While games like Overcooked or Moving Out can be frustrating when a minor mistake spirals out of control, or a small miscommunication loses you a medal, Keywe sands off those rough edges for a friendlier experience. Keywe succeeds in crafting a chiller version of the chaotic cooperation that makes this subgenre fun, and that’s just what we needed.