Quick Review: Calico

“What’s your gaming like lately, Nic?” Oh, y’know, one day I play a beat’em-up, later I get progress done on a stealth game, next a viking survival, and now I play a cutesy relationship/kitchen game. Variety!

There isn't much in here yet, but that'll change soon.

Developed by Peachy Keen Games, published by Whitethorn Games and Maple Whispering Unlimited and released on December 15th, 2020, Calico is described as a community sim. Your character inherited a cat café set on a magical, star-shaped island, and it is your duty to bring it back to full glory. After the very intricate character creation, we appear on the very pink island and we meet the mayor, who explains how things work around here. There’s a lot of magic going around; don’t question it, we don’t have to explain it. The animals around the island are all perfectly tamed, you can choose any of them to join the café so your customers will pet and play with them.

Because I’m a rebel, my first café animal was a crow.

It's my café, I'mma do what I want. Crow it is.
I'm gonna call him Malphas.

Sometimes they even give you new recipes!

Of course, what’s a shop without customers? You befriend the residents by completing side-quests for them. Some have their preferences regarding the style in the café, so you can decorate with furniture to please everyone. Along the way, you’ll collect furniture, toys for the animals you adopt for the café, and clothes and accessories for your character. At first, the paths to the branches of the star are blocked off, leaving only the center to explore; you solve that by completing major quests involving the available NPCs, and in the new areas you meet new folks/customers, and get more quests to complete.

Bring out the home decorator in you!

Milk... sugar, spice, and everything nice...

You’ll also find new recipes. However, the way you make the recipes is... unconventional. You get shrunk and platform your way around the kitchen, carrying the ingredients to the cooking pot and playing mini-games to bake the pastries. I mean, sure, that makes it different from classic cooking games. Although, we walk all over our recipes, and we let a cat knead the dough. I don’t think that’s sanitary. *cough cough* I know, magic, yadda yadda. At least it leads to a decent variety in mini-games.

Yup! Thanks for coming to the café, by the way!

I appreciate the cozy atmosphere of this one, nobody can get hurt (Fall damage? What’s that?), there’s never any stress. There’s a lot to discover, be it the animals you can pet, carry, or befriend, the potions you can use for various effects (like making small animals big enough to be ridden), and other cute stuff like that. It oozes positivity all around, promoting body positivity, inclusivity, and open-mindedness.

No, this isn't an impromptu yoga session, I'm just
ragdolling like crazy.

The weaknesses now: There’s issues with collision and clipping all over the place, which is notable when your character walks around, goes uphill, or whenever ragdoll physics kick in and an animal becomes a writhing mess for a moment. The number of times a pet at the café got stuck on furniture... “Janky” is the best way to describe it. I would also say that there’s little incentive in doing recipes more than once. Though, you must replace those that get stale, and also you get paid more for a delicacy if you get a Gold or Silver star on it, by completing it quickly.

I’d also say there’s an issue with quests and character interactions. It’s a nice touch that every NPC has its own agency and moves around the world, but it can make finding them tricky (good thing the map always shows their location). It also leads to situations where you have someone asking you to talk to someone else, who can be right next to them. Writing is occasionally odd; you can close a quest with a character, then talk to them again right away, and they’ll open with, “Well since you helped me the other day...”

The flying broom is basically the reward for beating the game.
It lets you see the place in a whole new way.

It’s a game made to be casual and soothing. You’ll hardly find anything challenging here, but that’s by design. It’s the sort of game I'd recommend you get it for a child, but its features make it an alright option for anyone in need of something sweet and simple to wind down.

Calico is available on Steam for 11.99$ USD.