Donut County

Laser-focused and brimming with charm, Donut County is one of the year’s best experiences. While brief, its laugh-out-loud sense of humor and laid-back, tactile gameplay combine precisely to create a game like no other. You’ll come for its physics based puzzle-solving, but you’ll stay for its quirky cast of characters and world. This is not a game to be missed.

It built a hilarious narrative around that silly concept and used that concept as a vessel for its heartwarming story and incredible humor that comes out in its writing and irreverent gameplay. For a game about garbage, its wholesomeness and “holesomeness” make it the very opposite of trash.

If you’re looking for something that will challenge you and twist your brain into knots, this game isn’t it. There’s no real skill curve, and most of the puzzles are simple enough that you can more or less accidentally stumble on the solutions, with a few rare exceptions. But I assure you that from the first moment you tip something into that hole and see it grow, you’ll be hooked.

Donut County is a little short and peaks prematurely and I don’t care. I’ve never played a game where I control a hungry hole, think like a trash raccoon, or talk to friendly animals at the bottom of a cave.

I wished the story was longer and the game had more things to do besides capturing things in a hole. But the story was lighthearted and the gameplay was fun. If you don’t have high expectations, I think you’ll find Donut County is a nice diversion.

A light-hearted adventure, short but full of charisma. If you want something unique and charming, give this a try.

Donut County is a wholly enjoyable romp that can be powered through in an afternoon, but it’s worth going back to try and find some of it’s hidden or not so hidden secrets, even if there are only a few of them to begin with.

Donut County's gameplay doesn't offer much of a challenge, but the mechanics work as an engaging core for a game that delivers so many charming characters and genuine laughs.

People will call Donut County an indie darling, and those people will be right.

Though short in duration and hardly taxing, Donut County wins you over with buckets of charm and some of the most relaxed gameplay money can buy. As such, Donut County is a compelling, nigh essential stop on the gaming journey for any self-respecting PS4 owner.

Donut County is a charming and straightforward example of how video games don’t need to be overly complex or contain multiple mechanics and systems to make for a good time.

Donut County is an excellent concept executed with pizzazz, personality, and an unexpectedly salient message at its core. While the end came abruptly and left me wanting more, like an endless mode or bigger levels to swallow things in, I can't deny the great time I had with what's there.

A fun way to spend two hours - but don't expect to remember it next month. [Oct 2018, p.68]

You’ll see everything Donut County has to offer in the few hours it takes to finish. Like a doughnut: short but sweet. [Issue#154, p.97]

It’s something of a dilemma to be left disappointed by a game where your only complaint is that it left you wanting more. But that’s how I feel about Donut County. What it does, it does very well. But there just isn’t enough of it.

A nice little game, with emphasis on the little. You'll have a great time in its couple of hours of quirky gameplay, but that might not be enough for some, considering the price.

If you take Donut County for what it is - a short and weird experience - Ben Esposito's game will deliver a sweet moment of a strange experiment. Built as an anti-Katamari Damacy, the hole mechanics are really addictive and fun to play with, even though the game suffers from a very short length. But if you are curious enough to try something as weird as the most bizarre Japanese games, you might be in for a treat.

Much like the sugary treats in its name, Donut County is sweet, satisfying, and you'll wish there were more when you're done. It's a jovial little adventure that has some great ideas; moving a hole around making objects fall in is surprisingly addictive and entertaining. Serving as a bite-sized snack between bigger titles, this definitely hits the spot, but those looking for a more filling experience may be left a little hungry.

But Donut County is first and foremost a titanic wasted opportunity: not without a certain ironic irony, it is indeed the depth to miss a game where you control a bottomless chasm.

While the story was a non-event and there’s not nearly enough absurd hijinks happening to suit my taste, I still found Donut County to be a worthwhile experience that was hard to put down. Making things disappear into the earth like a wrathful subterranean god was cathartic in an unexpected way. I’m not sure that I can fully articulate it, but I do recommend it.

A non-sense indie arcade game that recalls Katamari Damacy's gameplay style but falls too short to be remembered.

Donut County isn’t really bad at what it sets out to do, but its ambitions are so meager that you can’t help but feel the concept hasn’t been explored to the fullest extent. This is indie game design at its most disposable. I’d be shocked if anyone is still talking about—or even remembers—Donut County a year or two from now.

No other game this year will make you an accomplice in a dastardly raccoon plot to take over a town.