Button City

Overall, Button City has more depth than I anticipated and the replayability is high if you fall in love with the mini games. Main story can be completed in under 6 hours, but there is more fun to be had after with the mini arcade games, and finishing side quests. The story is touching and has a really emotive meaning behind it. The characters are designed well, and are utterly charming and I can imagine some good merch coming out from their cute faces. The music is a bop, the art style is charismatic but there are a few hitches along the way. Movement speed can slow your game down a lot. There are a few technical bumps, but I would recommend for anyone who wants to free flow through an adventure narrative of Fennel and his Friends.

Button City gets a lot right in its attempt to mesh late 90s low-poly style with narrative adventure gameplay and a heartfelt story full of great characters, but it's undone by numerous and often game-breaking bugs and a tad too much backtracking.

There’s a definite appeal in its cozy atmosphere and oddball characters, and the story about a community banding together to save what’s important to them is a heartfelt one. The minigames are a lot of fun, and what they lack in the precision you’d expect of a full-fledged arcade game, they make up for in sheer charm. But it’s also a game that leans a little too heavily into the quirky style of the “wholesome game” meme at the expense of substance and depth.

Button City is one of those games that I really wanted to love but ended up displeased by its clunky setup and subpar mini-games. There is still a good time to be had in its cute world, though, especially if you don't mind taking the bad with the good.

Perhaps I have been rather critical of Button City; there is something sweet in its cuddly art style and although its dialogue and narrative may be try-hard, it is effective at times. The real issue is that it feels like its developers have relied too hard on simply being cute rather than focusing on creating engaging gameplay. Regardless of how adorable the protagonist and their friends may be, there’s just not enough here to hold my attention.