I’m sure there is an achievement for “quacking,” but the game seems to make fun of the fact that anyone would want to unlock it. I was taken with it as soon as I realized you could spam a “quack” button in a text message during the game’s opening moments for no other reason than it being a funny thing to do. It is ultimately Donut County‘s brash personality that makes it an essential game. Donut County isn’t concerned with hitting those beats, at least not without its tongue tucked snugly in cheek. Katamari, for all its inventiveness, is a much more gamified series, one with time attacks, level progression, and power-ups. Where the games really differ, however, is to what end you are condensing the world. Sure, Katamari Damacy is perhaps the closest referent for how Donut County plays with scale and has you using everyday objects to progress, but in both games, you are making the world less, not more, populated. I feel contractually obligated to describe the game as a “reverse Katamari,” but that description falls a bit short for me. It also has one of the best soundtracks you’re likely to hear to in a game this year. Donut County is a singular experience that transcends its simple, but potent core mechanic thanks to idiosyncratic humor, clever gameplay twists, and a gleeful sense of what makes swallowing the world into a hole so cathartic. Hell, the buzz was loud enough to spawn a Goldman Sachs-backed “clone” that sought to undercut the game’s release. You control a hole in the ground that gets bigger as you devour increasingly larger items. The game, created by game designer Ben Esposito and based on a tweet by a Peter Molyneux parody account, has been a favorite at industry events. So it’s understandable that the publisher’s latest release, Donut County, would be the subject of some low-key hype. They have practically cornered the market for critically acclaimed games that can be completed in one sitting with titles like Gorogoa, Florence, and What Remains of Edith of Finch. Publisher Annapurna Interactive has recently been in the business of publishing short, self-contained games that run the length of an average movie.

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