A “Trash” Game
Donut County is an interesting game, similar to Katamari – one of my favourite games – in that you must collect items to become larger, allowing you to collect larger items.
BK, a Racoon, is the proprietor of a Donut shop in Donut County and takes orders for Donuts via an app. However, when customers order a donut he sends a small hole in the ground instead. This hole in the ground, controlled by you, will then begin swallowing objects around their home until, ultimately, it swallows their home and everything around it.
His friend Mira is on to him though, and isn’t too keen on her friends being swallowed by giant holes.
Donut County Review
The mechanics of the game are very much based on Katamari, which as I said, is one of my favourite games.
I wasn’t too sure about this game at first, I am often distrusting of Indie games, especially ones which are said to be less than 2 hours of gameplay and cost upwards of £5, but I went for it anyway. I’m going away for Christmas and wanted a nice short game I could plat and review before I leave my Ps4 behind for 2 weeks.
The game was £10 from the Playstation store and I’m pleased to say that, while I am apprehensive due to the amount of gameplay I got out of it (around 2 hours), I’m glad that I paid so much for this excellent game so that the developer, Ben Esposito, can make the most of it with whatever their next excellent game will be.
In terms of quality and fun, the game is more than deserving of the asking price.
Many of our readers will know by now that I have a hate-hate relationship with Indie games and it’s rare that I will find one which is well-produced enough for me to say I enjoyed it, or even stuck around to finish it. This is one of those rare occasions.
The graphical style of the game is low-poly, simple, and extremely charming. Each minimally-detailed model is equipped with just enough charm to put a smile on my face and put me in the right mood for the comical, relaxed and strange game which lay ahead of me.
The story revolves around the citizens of Donut County and how their lives have been affected by BKs addiction to his hole-making app, desperately trying to reach level 10 to unlock a “Quadcopter”. The citizens sit around a campfire, 999 meters below Donut County, each recounting the tale of how they ended up down there, with BK denying he ever did anything wrong, twisting the tales to seem like a good thing.
The gameplay is very simple. You start off as a small hole and you must position yourself below small objects to have them fall in. with each object, the hole gets bigger, until it’s big enough to take bigger objects…
Okay, stop. Stop giggling.
I’m aware of the plethora of double-entendre here, but what do you want me to do? How else could I possibly describe it? You’re just going to have to be a big boy (or girl/other) and get your mind out of the gutter.
With each level there will be a main large object which your goal is to collect, although sometimes the goal is just to collect everything. Completing the level will reward you with a little more of the game’s nonchalantly bizarre story before plunging you into the next stage.
The story took me about an hour and a half, but it would probably have been a lot quicker if I wasn’t taking the time to soak in all of the quirky dialogue.
My Donut County Platinum Trophy Experience
To start off, I just wanted to experience the game. I knew it would be short going in, and I wanted to be relaxed and casual about playing it, rather than tracking my trophy progress and trying to get them all in one run.
I played through the game’s story, taking it all in as the hole I was controlling took everything in too. There are a fair deal of story-related trophies so I didn’t really need to worry about too much, I just tried to ensure I collected every item for the Trashopedia. I did manage to get a few missable trophies on my way through, too, such as “Gamer”, “Pyro” and “Disrespecter” but I wasn’t too worried as I knew there would be a level select allowing me to easily mop up any remaining trophies afterwards.
All in all I had a lot of fun with the game, it put a smile on my face multiple times and the simple style was very pleasant to look at.
Donut County Trophy Guide
To accompany this review, I wrote a Trophy Guide for the missable trophies. This was originally found here, so if you’re returning and feeling confused, worry not, we moved it!
It seems some users had trouble finding our guide or understandably felt some confusion upon coming to this page and facing a review instead, so we’ve given the guide a dedicated Donut County trophy guide page to help the situation!
