Absolute fever dream of a game. I created a busty, maroon-skinned abomination of indeterminable gender who Naruto ran everywhere, bounced side to side on the spot whenever left idle as if they had some kind of severe hyperactive disorder, and sported a flattop haircut literally colored with one the wallpaper patterns. Shockingly my custom avatar still wasn’t the strangest thing in this world where nearly every inhabitant is gay and you can hilariously ragdoll animals' limp bodies at any time by spinning them around your head like pizza dough. Everything from the modern era Cartoon Network visual aesthetic to the fact that you shrink down to the size of an insect and launch yourself around the kitchen on wooden spoons (because apparently that's easier than just walking to the fridge at normal height) to cook gives the impression that a bunch of members of the LGBT community got together, dropped acid, and made an itch.io meme parody of Animal Crossing.

Once you get past all the weirdness of the magical mushroom forests and potions that turn you into humanoid cats though, you really are simply doing fairly typical life simulator tasks of performing favors for the locals to improve your relationships while trying to open up new areas of the island and manage a cafe. It's a genuinely charming and fun experience, even if the constant backtracking to and fro between NPCs in different sections of the map can get a bit annoying. There are plenty of optional smaller distractions for you to engage in as well, such as finding every critter or completing all the baking minigames to fully flesh out your menu of delectable goodies for customers to enjoy. The amount of queer representation will also be a delight for many. You interact with at least two openly lesbian couples, a plethora of small details on clothing or in dialogue hint at a wider array of diverse sexual orientations for the cast, and special care is given so that you can know every character's pronouns if you want to (yes, there is a they/them).

Unfortunately, Calico does have one pretty serious shortcoming, and that's how unlike the Stardew Valleys and Sims of the genre there is a clear ending point here. What's worse is that it won't take you long to reach it either. After a handful of hours, you'll have legitimately burned through all there is to do and have no reason to come back, possibly ever. Heck, even your business technically runs itself as once you create a tasty treat for the first time, subsequent batches magically and automatically produced themselves freeing you up to explore other activities. Whether the title's relatively brief lifespan is a dealbreaker or not will come down to individual preference. Personally, I think the uniquely gonzo style and endearingly quirky mechanics make it worth recommending if you're looking for something different in spite of the $12 price tag.

7.8/10

Overall, this was a cute and cozy little game to relax with when I was in the mood to turn my brain off for a while. It has a diverse cast of characters, a pleasantly chill soundtrack, a very pretty art style, and some really fun design elements.

The entire gameplay loop is based around quests. This didn't bother me much, but if you're the type of person where games with a lot of "fetch quests" bother you, this definitely isn't the game for you. Most of the quests involve either finding a specific item for your cafe or traveling across the map to go find people or animals. This is a good way to get the player to explore around the map, but it is also very repetitive. It felt quite short compared to similar games I have played but I played the whole game in just a few long play sessions, which may have influenced my experience a bit. The game seems more intended to be played in many shorter sessions, rather than all at once.

The characters are very cute, with delightful designs, but they are also quite flat in terms of personality and story. Your only real interaction with any of the characters is through their questlines. Once you finish a character's questline, they may show up in the questline of another character, but besides that they're stuck repeating the same lines over and over for all eternity. The game wasn't really designed with longevity or replay value in mind, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but definitely something to keep in mind. The rigid focus on quests as a means of interacting with characters with a lack of additional dialogue to flesh them out leaves them feeling quite flat, though this is worse in some cases than others. This is a shame, because I met some characters I was really fascinated by and wanted to get to know better, but once I finished their questlines there was no more substance to them.

I had the most fun in the game hunting around to collect all of the cats (and other animals!) scattered around the map. Some of them were quite difficult to find and it felt rewarding when I did find them. I liked carrying them around, giving them names, petting them, playing with them, and just generally goofing around with them. The game has a lot of different ways of interacting with the animals, and even if they didn't necessarily serve a "purpose" in gameplay or story progression I spent a lot of time just messing around with those mechanics. As you get further into the game you also unlock other mechanics and new ways of interacting with your animals. No spoilers, but these were very fun too.

The game also has some design elements. I was surprised how in-depth the system for decorating the cafe was. You can get furniture for your cafe and change its colors, patterns, etc. You unlock new patterns to use as the game progresses and often get furniture as rewards for quests, or you can buy it at a shop. You can move and rotate things exactly as you like, without any snap-to-grid interface getting in your way. The game also lets you design your outfit in a similarly in-depth fashion. You can edit the colors and patterns of your clothes, unlocking and purchasing new clothes throughout the game. If you're really into that sort of design-focused gameplay, I actually think Calico does it quite well.

Also, HUGE bonus points for the character creator. An actual diverse range of skin tones (completely select your own from a color-picker) plus actual diverse body types/shapes. Any game where fat people exist gets a gold star in my book.

The actual core gameplay is the series of cooking minigames you play to make foods and drinks for your cafe. These were pretty fun at times, but also pretty frustrating. Some aspects of these minigames were very repetitive and became a bit of a slog after a while. Despite the minigame for each menu item being unique, many of them were quite similar or had elements which were identical. I encountered a few bugs which forced me to restart a minigame completely over multiple times, which became very frustrating. Despite this, I generally enjoyed the minigames, especially the more unique ones.

I initially got this game on Nintendo Switch. Like others have mentioned, it was very buggy. I later realized that I just so happened to have already gotten the game on PC in an itch bundle, so I switched to playing it on PC, and that was much better. If you have the choice, I definitely recommend getting the game on PC instead of Switch.

- L

Calico is a lovely, relaxing game about taking over your grandmother's cafe in a magical neighborhood. You can pet every critter you come across and invite them to stay at your cafe. You can decorate the inside of the cafe, your room, and your yard. There isn't a wide array of decorations but it is fun to see the different styles. You can make food and decide what to sell.

The art style of the game is very whimsical. The watercolor makes a peaceful atmosphere; everything feels bright and inviting. You don't take damage and there's no fights. The movement of your character and animals did catch me off guard at first. It's hard to describe. Not "janky" like it's bad, maybe more like everything "flutters." But animals can get stuck in walls/banisters, flip over themselves, float, etc. It would surprise me then it was funny to see.

My negative is the world feels a bit shallow. Once you get an understanding of the game, it's really fun to explore and meet new people. However, they're shallow. Everyone has three requests; some of the quests are just: speak with person "A", speak to person "B", then go back to person "A". Quest over. That's not fun. You don't get much out of that. The characters will sometimes talk about the world and others, but you don't get much information. I wish it was more fleshed out but it's still enjoyable.