MILD GAME MECHANIC SPOILERS BELOW

KinitoPet is a charming, deceptive, and surprisingly immersive psychological digital horror video game that is impactful despite it's short runtime. The game presents you with a simulated personal computer, where you find yourself downloading a virtual assistance program, none other than the titular character KinitoPET, a pink axolotl AI companion that is eager to make you their newest friend. Whilst KinitoPET has a friendly demeanour at first, it’s not long until his demeanour changes and you find yourself at the mercy of his antics.

This premise may seem formulaic to other digital horror experiences but I assure you that the metaphorical and literal fourth wall breaks that KinitoPET is able to achieve is incredibly personal and is worth experiencing first-hand. KinitoPET will ask you questions, it wants to learn your name, your address, your fears… and it uses these answers against you. But it also goes one step further, manipulating your peripheral devices such as cameras and monitors, accesses your computer and altering files on your desktop to create a horror experience that transcends the boundary of the simulated computer.

As I mentioned briefly, this creates an incredibly personalised experience that uses your system, your sensitive information, and your responses against you, and combines them with elements more typical of digital horror games to create something unsettling. KinitoPET also has replayability, with multiple endings and secrets that fans of the game will want to discover first-hand.

The audio and visual design is incredibly effective in capturing that early era of personal computers, and the aesthetic of KinitoPET himself, the website, and the interactive games throughout are incredibly endearing to the time period but also subvert drastically in moments to create jarring moments of fear. If you’re a fan of digital horror I think this is a must play and at a fair price I would highly recommend this game to fans of the genre.