Release Date: December 15, 2020
Developers: Peachy Keen Games
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC (Reviewed)
Price: $11.99

I've always been a firm believer in helping others and doing what I can to ensure that someone with a bold creative vision can realize their ambitions and see their art and ideas come to fruition. It’s because of this that back in Spring of 2019 while perusing Kickstarter, I happened to run into a project of a game that spoke to me from the moment I saw its title: Calico. Calico promised a game of cats, cafes, and simulation that felt refreshing and didn't involve the typical farm and/or romance aspect you see so much of within the genre, and instead provided a colorful, beautiful world filled with feline friends and cute companions. As someone who loves cats probably more than I would love my own children if I had any, and someone who also loves coffee more than I would love my own children if I had any, Calico was a dream project I, along with thousands of others, helped successfully back. Months went by with developer updates and behind-the-scenes look at the development progress, and with each passing day I was more excited than the last. Fast forward to an Indie World Direct in mid-December 2020 - a year and a half later - and Calico had shown up in Nintendo's presentation to unveil a new trailer for the Switch (the version I had backed), and even further surprise with a release date that happened that very same day, releasing on the eShop and other digital platforms after the presentation. It was an exciting moment and thing to see: A project I firmly believed in get the recognition I felt it deserved in a showcase as big as a Nintendo Direct, and not giving the hype any chance to die down as it would be available immediately afterwards and for everyone to play. It was a well-kept secret not even the backers knew (this would've easily been leaked if so), but an exciting one nonetheless as once the presentation was over I went immediately to my inbox to find… nothing. I checked the eShop, and sure enough it was there available for purchase. I went to check the Kickstarter page for any accompanied updates/announcements, but, much like my inbox, there was nothing. I decided to be patient as I know codes can sometimes be distributed at a later time when it comes to consoles because of a certification and approval process they have to go through that can take quite a bit of time depending on what's being done. An hour passed by - nothing. Three hours passed by - nothing. Twelve hours passed by - nothing. It wouldn't be until three days after the Direct where I would get my code for Calico on the Switch eShop, and while I was still excited, I couldn't help but feel a level of dishonesty and disrespect towards backers for not having priority. Things began to start off with a bad taste in my mouth, but I let it slide because I was excited for the game as well as the duo team at Peachy Keen Games for releasing a project (which is no easy feat in itself) that I know they were just as excited and passionate about making and releasing as the player-base was about getting their hands on it. A year and a half of excitement and waiting, despite the rocky release, led to an unfortunate disappointment that was due in large part of its control scheme, odd design choices, performance woes, and a less-than exciting questline.

Calico had everything it needed to be a great game from the start and was almost immune to any sort of faults that it may have had during the course of its development and release, being such an enjoyable game that most, if not all, players would be able to overlook small quirks and bugs within: It had the cute animals, it had an adorable aesthetic, it had an inviting open-world where you can explore and meet with other people like you who are constantly indebted to you, a fully customizable café, and so many quirky cute things that would leave endless hours of entertainment. Right out of the gate on Switch and PC, however, things began to feel a bit odd and unintuitive. The game starts you off with a character customization screen that at a glance looks like a standard character creator, giving you options to change your body type, eyes, hair, tops, bottoms, and just about everything in between including a color spectrum that doesn't miss a single tone or shade. Right away things weren't making much sense at all as control schemes weren't your typical click and drag sliders situation, but instead was a mix of escape buttons to save (but also cancel) your customizations, spacebars, directional buttons, and random keys that were inconsistent in any sort of way you would expect a simple accept, cancel, or configure setting to be. To make matters even more confusing, with a controller, particularly on Switch, the A and B buttons are swapped. I would imagine Calico was built with PC in mind so for those using a controller (which it recommends), players are more than likely using a Xbox controller to play, which in this case would be fine, but on a joy-con or pro controller, the B-button is where the A-button would be and vice versa, making things confusing right away even when you're selecting new game and nothing is happening until you find out what you would expect cancel to be is actually the button you use to provide an action. Not only that, but it almost feels like controls won't work right away as the D-Pad and control sticks aren't interchangeable in menus, so I couldn't move hitting up or down through the menus until I used the stick. This gets even crazier once you jump back into creators and other menus where sometimes the right stick will be what you'll need to use to adjust some things, and then sometimes bumpers - this goes for both Xbox and Switch controllers. Character customization ends up becoming a bit of a mess also due to the fact that selections tend to revert or end up selecting something else entirely on occasion. Say I wanted to make a blue character reminiscent of James Cameron's Avatar, I would then confirm my selection only for my character to randomly become mahogany or neon green. The whole character customization process - which is usually one of my favorite parts of a game - was so incredibly frustrating I couldn't wait for it to be over with, and with constant changes that were not my own, I ended up just continuing with a character that I had no say in creating.

Due to the nature of the controls constantly feeling like they're fighting with you before you even begin, naturally things become even more confusing once you start the game whether you're on a controller or keyboard and mouse. You'll be greeted at your new café right away instead of having to work for it, which is nice because I just want to hurry up and spend my time with cats in a café anyways, so this quickly excited me. You'll get the hang of setting down furniture (frustrating), cooking (cute but frustrating), and giving out commands to the cats and other animals you come across (mildly frustrating). Due to the controls constantly changing once again, all of these became unintuitive quickly, and the furniture selection screens were a hassle to get through despite being nicely organized, cooking was a hassle because of odd draw-distance issues where words on certain packages that look alike wouldn't show up unless you're right up against it as you shrink down into a tiny version of yourself akin to 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' despite being a cute little mini-game in itself, and the commands more often than not never felt like they worked. This is all within the first five to ten minutes of the game before you can freely roam around and head into the closest town to meet everyone, getting acquainted with your surroundings and taking care of quests making sure you have the necessary funds and connections to run a successful café. So early on and I was already sad that I had no desire to keep playing because the game felt like it almost didn't want me to. All of it still felt like Early Access despite being a 1.0 build, and a lack of polish started to show underneath a game that exuded promise but still felt unfinished. I want to believe Calico is a diamond in the rough, it just needs to be scraped of all the gunk first.

Performance on PC leaves a lot to be desired, though not as much as it is on consoles. Despite a very low spec requirement, Calico tends to stutter and sporadically jump around frames at just about any moment whether you're in a populated area or not, indoors or out. Sometimes you can even tell right away as the main menu sees a bunch of calico cats floating around giving a glimpse of what heaven may be like visually, as it almost looks like it's struggling with a vertical sync option on both PC and console, and tweaking doesn't do much good either as the settings provide little outside of inverting the X and Y axis for the camera. It's in a playable state - more so on PC - but it still struggles to find its footing a lot of the time. Not only does performance struggle to find its footing, but a lot of the animations, while some are cute, are almost overly exaggerated, and I wish there were settings to adjust certain options like a manual/auto-run ability, as your main character will automatically start running after a set period of time, and do so in a fashion that makes them look like they're running for their life from someone behind with a knife. The game is proud of its quirks, and it should be, but there are certain things that feel more cringe than not and, much like the controls, end up making very little sense out of "just cause we could", but not even really in an endearing manner as the frustrations continue to build.

The best part about Calico truthfully isn't even the advertised cats and cafés, but instead its open-world. Sure, it's empty and not anywhere near as animated as it is vibrant, but it's a calming, serene world that goes beyond giving a plethora of cats to pet, hold, ride, and adopt, also providing bears, crows, pandas, foxes, and so many other fur babies that we love and wish we could domesticate, adventuring through areas like snowy mountains, hot springs, shroomy plantations, radiant fields and more seeing a peaceful world we'd all love to be in. Everything about it makes you go "Aw" and "omg" in a cutesy way as you can't help but smile, and while it can be fun exploring, the end-goal and point of the game itself (the café) ends up being too much of a frustration to keep me invested into spending more time with it. I want so bad to get lost in it and spend countless hours building my dream cat café, but the cons far outweigh the pros at the time of this review, and I'm hoping within the next few months or by the end of 2021 we can see how Calico was truly meant to be.

In the end, I truly believe Calico *can* be a great game. In fact, I *know* it will be a great game as it continues to iron out its faults through patches and expands on the game further through content updates that I'm sure will be a joy to play, but as of now Calico's biggest drawback and hindrance is without a doubt its controls and the fact that it feels like it was prematurely released. As someone who backed this for a Nintendo Switch copy of the game, the controls were immediately one of the first things I noticed I had problems with as they felt far away from being anything remotely ergonomic, and after more researching it seems the majority of players agree that the keybindings and inputs on both PC and Switch respectively make the game virtually unplayable. There's a level of stress from the button mapping and inability to change them however you please that takes away from an otherwise serene experience, and while you can remove the controls from your screen at any point, they almost feel like they should be left up there always because of how ridiculous it all is. Calico will be a great game for cat lovers and those that can't live without coffee - especially if you're both like me - but optimization is needed in both performance and making things a lot more accessible to a wider range of audiences to make the game truly enjoyable.

PROS:

Tons of animals in addition to cats make an appearance that you can play with, adopt, ride, and pet
The colorful tones of Calico make it inviting
A relaxing experience and a dream for those wanting to build their own cat café

CONS:

The controls on both PC and Switch almost feel thrown in with little to no thought put behind the mapping
A lack of polish in a lot of departments such as animation, user interfaces, and more make it frustrating
Riddled with bugs and performance issues

A big thank you to Peachy Keen Games for providing us with a copy of Calico for the purposes of this review

Calico Review