Video Game Blog 051: SoraRabbit's Review Corner #1
Welcome to a new feature that I created on the spur of the moment! (Those are typically my favorite.) See, on my list of posts for the year I have one called “Puzzle Binge #3” where I planned to review Piczle Rune Factory and a couple of other random puzzle games. The problem was that I realized I didn’t have enough to say about the other puzzle games to fill a whole post. I really wanted to cover the new Piczle game though, since I reviewed all the others.
At the same time as I was puzzling over this conundrum (see what I did there?), I found myself a bit sidetracked from my annual video game list… as I do every year. While waiting for the Switch 2 to come out, I found myself following my whims, finishing a few shorter indy games that I’d accumulated over the years. (And a couple of Lego games, but I’ll save those for my year-end post.) I figured going through these shorter games wouldn’t detract much from my list, especially considering I’ve already finished most of the longer games I had slated for the year. I found myself wanting to write about these games too, even though I knew I wouldn’t have time.
I’m sure you see where this is going. My subconscious connected the dots and I realized I could solve both problems with one post, which would also open itself up to future posts. Win win win.
This duck is great. (Credit: Happy Broccoli Games)
So yeah, this will be a post of short reviews on four games, focusing this time on indy developers. I have a very simple review system which I originated on my Dragon Ball fighting game post and have adapted for use here. In that post I rate the games from 1 to 7 Dragon Balls, obviously since there are 7 Dragon Balls. Here I will rate the games from 1 to 7 Gamer Bunnies.
My comprehensive rating system.
Why seven? Because five isn’t enough and ten is too much. Seven is the perfect rating number. Now note, that as with many reviewers, 7 would be a very difficult number for a game to achieve. In SoraRabbit’s gaming world, a game would have to be something pretty special to rate a perfect 7 Bunnies. It would have to be something along the lines of Kingdom Hearts 2, Silent Hill 2, or Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. (What is with me and Part 2s? Weird.)
That said, you also know I’m very positive, so I doubt I’ll ever use my PNGs for the 1-3 Bunny ratings. (Of course if I was rating The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame, that would likely get a three Bunny rating. A little spoiler for my Year End post there.)
Anyway, enough of that. Let’s start out with the game that set me on this quest in the first place!
Title screen (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)
Piczle Cross: Rune Factory was released in 2025 for the Nintendo Switch and Steam by Score Studios LLC. I played it on Switch. If you recall, I played several other games by Score Studios and they quickly became one of my favorite developers.
Here are my previous posts about this developer’s games:
A puzzle in progress. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)
The newest game in the Piczle series is another nonogram game where you fill in squares to reveal a picture. This one is based off of the series Rune Factory and the puzzles relate to the characters, monsters, weapons, items, and crops of that franchise.
I’m going to say up front that I’m not well-versed in Rune Factory. My only exposure to this series is watching some videos a few years back by my favorite streamer. I don’t have any of the games. Someday I might. But I know enough to get the gist of it. It’s basically Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons with a Dragon Quest Monsters slant. You explore dungeons, fight and tame monsters, and work on your farm while cultivating relationships with the townspeople. Seems like something I’d totally be into. But it also seems time-consuming, and I have lots of Story of Seasons games to get to first.
That said, I can’t speak for how well this game captures the spirit and feel of the Rune Factory games since I’m not qualified to gauge that. But I assume it does it quite well. The art style and music evoke a different feel from the previous Piczle, which was based on Story of Seasons.
Customization! (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)
As with the previous games, there are a lot of customization and accessibility options to tailor the gameplay to the way you prefer. This one includes an option to zoom in on specific lines to aid in puzzling on smaller screens.
My starter farm. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)
The customization doesn’t end in the options, though. Being a Rune Factory game, you have a farm that you can build up as well. There are various types of farms that are unlocked through puzzles. You can plant crops, populate it with tamed monsters, equip your character with weapons, and even get married once you fulfill the right requirements. None of these things impact gameplay, aside from the aesthetics, but it’s nice to have these things to tinker with and customize as you like.
As with the Story of Seasons game, there is a compendium you fill up as you complete puzzles with information about the characters, monsters, and more. There is a journal that records your earned trophies, see the completion percentage, and very detailed stats. (Number of squares filled, number of times you made mistakes, etc.) There is even a calendar here that fills in with each day you’ve played. (I haven’t missed a day since the release date.)
Working my way across the map. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)
The game progresses across a map, with new puzzles being unlocked after completing adjacent puzzles. Some of them remain locked until you gain specific items. For instance, completing the Greeting Spell puzzle will unlock the character puzzles, and the fishing pole grants you access to the fish.
This game has a lot of puzzles. There are 320 puzzles in all, including the collages. You can play each puzzle in black and white or color, making for a total of 640. There are challenge puzzles, where hints are disabled and you have an hour to complete it. In this type of puzzle, every mistake gives you a time penalty. These puzzles are framed as a battle between you and a monster, who you then unlock for your farm after defeating. There’s a real sense of tension to the challenge mode, with the music getting faster and any mistake bringing you closer to failure. There are also collage puzzles where you solve smaller puzzles to make a bigger picture.
Score: 6 Gamer Bunnies
I give this one a 6 out of 7 Gamer Bunnies. If you’re into puzzles, nonogram or otherwise, you wouldn’t go wrong giving this one a shot. There are a lot of puzzles to complete, a lot to unlock, and the game is just plain fun. As with any puzzle tie-in game, the links to the source material are in aesthetic and spirit. But this is all just topping, flavor. The game is really all about the puzzles, and this is where it really excels.
Is a sheepy. (Credit: Score Studios LLC, Rainy Frog)
When this game came out, I was playing a ton of different Picross games for my annual game list— Picross Record of the Shield Hero, Picross S2, Picross e4, and a bit of Picross S+. I paused all those to focus on this one. It’s just that engaging. I like the map you travel across. The customization aspects are nice, as are the collectible feeling of getting weapons and accessories from completing puzzles. I always love earning trophies. The gameplay is great and the puzzles get really challenging at the higher sizes. I really like the journal with all the stats, keeping track of days played and puzzle percentage. All in all, a very solid entry into the Piczle series. I can never get enough nonogram puzzles and this game gave me 640 more to complete.
I’m still working my way through this game currently. As of the time of writing this, I’m sitting at 62.81% completion. I’ve mostly done the black and white puzzles, but completing both types for the collages. I’ll keep plugging away until I’m at 100% and have done all 640 puzzles.
Title screen. (Credit: Ben Esposito and Annapurna Interactive)
Donut County was released in 2018 by Ben Esposito and Annapurna Interactive. It has been released for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows, and mobile devices. I played the PS4 version for this review.
The calm before the hole. (Credit: Ben Esposito and Annapurna Interactive)
The concept behind this game is fairly simple. A group of colorful characters— mainly talking animals— are gathered at the bottom of a pit deep underground, telling the story of how they got there. It all traces back to a mischievous racoon BK who uses a phone app to summon holes in the town. As things fall into the holes they get bigger and bigger until you eventually consume everything in the area. Everything that falls in the hole is added to an amusing journal where you get the racoon’s skewed point of view.
Eeeee! (Credit: Ben Esposito and Annapurna Interactive)
The gameplay is simple, yes, but there are more options that unlock as you go. You can fire items back out of the hole, super-heat the hole with fire, or fill it with water. There are some puzzles to complete and a few parts made me really think on how to proceed. (Especially the part where you have to make soup in the hole in a specific way and keep the roaches from drowning in it.) One of my favorite game mechanics is in two areas you have to capture two rabbits in the hole and they start breeding at super speed, throwing bunnies all over the place. And believe it or not, there’s actually a boss battle at the end!
Score: 6 Gamer Bunnies
I gave this one 6 Gamer Bunnies, for solid gameplay, engaging characters and humor, and even the short playtime was a plus for me. It’s a quick game to fire up and play start to finish. And there were bunnies in it!
Aww bunnies. (Credit: Ben Esposito and Annapurna Interactive)
This game is very simple and fast, but a lot of fun. The story and characters are solid, the gameplay smooth and easy to pick up, and the graphics and humor are top-notch. Overall this is a very creative and cute game that I will definitely replay at some point. I got all the trophies, and those added some extra gameplay to it. I know I didn’t have a whole lot to say about it, but it was an enjoyable experience, quick and cute.
Title screen. (Credit: Happy Broccoli Games)
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami was released in 2024 by Happy Broccoli Games for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Windows, and mobile. I played the Switch version for this review.
This game follows a case by a hard-boiled detective who also happens to be a duck. An office worker’s lunch keeps going missing from the company fridge. As the Duck Detective works the case, it quickly become apparent that everyone has something to hide and the case is much bigger and more complicated than just stolen lunches.
The game plays out through a series of deduc(k)tions where you have to arrange clues you’ve obtained into sentences, each one giving more detail about the various suspects and the overall case. Observing things around the office and talking with the suspects give you the clues you need. Once you’ve solved the deduc(k)tions, determined who the guilty parties are, and what their motivations were, you’ve solved the case and won the game.
Office party. (Credit: Happy Broccoli Games)
The game is designed like little paper cutouts moving around the environment. The characters are quirky, the interactions funny, and the gameplay easy to grasp. One thing I should note is that this game is short. Like, really short. 2-3 hours completing everything. I almost finished it in one sitting but got stuck on one of the more difficult deuc(k)tions. (Two of them really gave me problems.)
One slight note, this game did not like my third party controller. (The next game in the list was the same.) A couple of times the controller would beep low battery when it wasn’t, and the controller randomly shut off a couple of times. It wasn’t too bad, though.
Score: 5 Gamer Bunnies
I gave this one 5 out of 7 Gamer Bunnies. Although I loved this game and had a blast with it, it was just too short. Some of the deduc(k)tions weren’t intuitive… I feel like there should have been more clues pointing to the solutions. There were a couple of places where I made a leap of logic or just tried various combinations of clues to figure it out and that doesn’t seem right. The clues should be sufficient to logic your way through.
This game is really cute. (Credit: Happy Broccoli Games)
Duck Detective is a super cute game. Fun gameplay. Simple but challenging at parts. Great voicework and character design. The short length didn’t take away from it much, although I would have liked for it to have been a bit longer, maybe with multiple cases arranged in chapters. I’m very much looking forward to the sequel. (Which I just now realized is out for the Switch. I just took a break from writing this post to go buy it.)
Title screen. (Credit: Triband)
What the Golf? was released in 2019 by Triband for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows. I played the Nintendo Switch version.
Golf is tricky. (Credit: Triband)
This game was surprisingly enjoyable. I first came across it being played by a streamer couple I watch occasionally and had to try it for myself. In the game you play a sentient golf ball exploring a crazy golf-themed laboratory, where they study ways to make the boring game of golf fun. These experiments involve a lot of obstacles, different gameplay, and sometimes explosions.
Every level is different, with none of them being straight-forward golfing. In some levels the hole will move around the course. In some you hit the golfer instead of the ball. There’s a crazy amount of variety to the gameplay and scenarios you face. Each level has three variations, the normal, one with a par you have to be under, and one off the wall variant. Completing the level normally fills the flag in on the overworld map and completing all three variants gives you a little crown over the flag. Completing all the holes in an area gives you a trophy for your trophy room.
This is a complex game. (Credit: Triband)
This game is pretty immense. Along with a robust main campaign, there were several free chapters released, daily challenges, a super difficult challenge, demo levels, and occasional limited-time bonus levels. There are over 500 levels in the game currently, with more still being added.
This game is super creative. (Credit: Triband)
The game is filled with pop culture references, puns, and parodies/tributes of other games. There are secret paths to discover, hidden trophies to find, and lots of cats to knock over. There’s even a bit of a story, with your golf ball seemingly trying to escape while a sinister AI tries to stop him. (At least I think that’s what the story is… I haven’t finished the main campaign yet.)
For a downside, I did run into a few glitches, and at one point had to reload the game multiple times before a screen would properly load in to allow me to complete a level. (I was going down a pipe to a hidden area, which the game didn’t properly scroll to.) There have been some software crashes and just as with Duck Detective, this game really hates my third party controller. I have to use the Joycons for it because almost immediately after starting the game, it reports my controller’s battery is low even when it is fully charged. (Of course, I do think my controller does have some issues, so it’s not all the game’s fault. I got a Nintendo branded controller for my Switch 2, so hopefully I won’t have any more problems. It’s a bit more expensive but I’ve heard good things about the official controllers.)
Archery is golf. Everything is golf. (Credit: Triband)
This game was marketed as a golf game for people who hate golf. Disdain for the sport does come through, but more than that, a spirit of creativity and gentle trolling towards the player. The developers clearly had a lot of fun making this game, coming up with new twists and turns and challenges.
Score: 5 Gamer Bunnies
Although I’m having a lot of fun with this game, I could only give it Five Gamer Bunnies. The loss of bunnies is from the glitches I encountered, the slow load speeds, and the trouble I have keeping my controller connected. Aside from those flaws, the game is very creative, always with new surprises coming up, and there is such a generous amount of content being added to the game all the time. The sheer amount of free content flowing into the game raised it from a potential 4 Bunnies, so I am being gracious.
Chaos. (Credit: Triband)
What the Golf? is a lot of fun and immensely creative. It’s very generous with the content, so I will still be playing this game for some time to come. (I’m still surprised that the additional episodes weren’t paid DLC.) You never know what to expect when entering a new area. This is a game that keeps you guessing. It’s very easy to binge, as you always want to know what the game’s going to throw at you next. There are two pseudo-sequels… What the Bat? which is only VR (and so I will not be playing). And What the Car? which does not yet have a Switch port. If it gets one, I’ll definitely pick it up.
Pretty much, yeah. (Credit: Ben Esposito and Annapurna Interactive)
So that’s the first installment of SoraRabbit’s Review Corner! I really liked putting this together. It’s always fun to talk about the games I like and I hope it helps you all too, maybe exposing you to games you otherwise wouldn’t give a chance. Indy games are great and you should absolutely support your indy developers. I love that people can bring their visions to life in this way and get widespread play without having to go through a juggernaut corporation.
If you think back, one of the first games I ever reviewed on this blog was an indy game, A Short Hike. And that led me to starting a video game section in the SoraRabbit Hole. So I’ve come full circle! I will definitely plan more installments in this series. The next one will likely include Goat Simulator because I finally got around to playing that and I’m having way too much fun with it. And probably the second Duck Detective game. Aside from goats and ducks, I’m not sure what else we’ll look at next time, so stayed tuned! And as always, if you have suggestions, drop me a line in the comments or on socials.
Signing off! (Credit: Triband)
Thank you all for reading, I appreciate you all so much. I’ll be back very soon with more game posts. Until then, support indy developers and keep playing!
See you again soon! (Credit: Ben Esposito and Annapurna Interactive)
