I was trying to remember when I first laid eyes on Woodo from Tiny Monks Tales and Daedalic Entertainment, but time is wibbly wobbly, and when I looked it up, I found that it was announced in the summer of 2023. Time flies. I remember being enamoured by its delightfully nostalgic design and cozy gameplay.
Woodo plays like a cozy colouring book, and that is exactly how the 3-person team from Tiny Monks Tales characterizes it. You are presented with colourless outlines of objects, and your job is to fill them in with the colourful objects in your possession. I think this is a great comparison because Woodo captures the same sort of mindful focus while also letting you pick it up and put it back down as you have time.
While I think it’s a great comparison, and a way to quickly ‘sell’ a game to a friend, Woodo is much different from a colouring book in that you can’t choose the colours of the items, and you can’t go outside the lines (thankfully). The colourful wood-like pieces click into the proper spots and fill the drab diorama with life and colour. Some are complete items, like a plate, planter, etc., while others are parts of a larger item, an oven door, or the frame of a bookshelf. I guess in this way, Woodo feels like a hybrid between a colouring book and a jigsaw puzzle. Or maybe it’s more like a building blocks set, since sometimes the pieces you are presented with are not clear what they are or where they might belong at first, and it’s not until you complete part of the scene that it makes sense.
You will also find some objects hidden within other areas of your scenes; a tiny door opens a home to a mouse. You must complete that interior scene to gain a piece needed for the larger scene. I loved discovering all the hidden secrets. If you get stuck, there is a handy hint system as well.
I mentioned bringing life to a scene and not just colour because at certain points, when you add specific pieces to the scene, a character or scene will come to life. Animals will move, fish will swim, and plants will grow. This is also how you move the story along.
The story is a simple and familiar one to me. A young fox (Foxy) from the city goes to visit a country-dwelling family member (a frog named Ben) for the summer. What starts out as something that seems to be boring ends up creating a summer of memories and bonding over shared activities and experiences. Simple, straightforward, emotional. A lot of this emotion comes from the stellar narration of the story by Miriam Teak-Lee. From the opening scene and page of the storybook, I was captivated. The story and gameplay are both family-friendly, and I think this will appeal to a wide variety of ages and skills.
The gameplay mechanics are simple: pick a piece from your inventory and rotate the scene to line it up for placement. Zooming in and out is easy as well. While I was originally granted a review code for Steam, I was also gifted a code for the Nintendo Switch. You will use a mouse or controller to rotate and place pieces for the most part, but the touchscreen while playing on Switch in handheld mode also works extremely well. This makes me happy as it’s a perfect cozy game for the Switch console.
While Woodo is relatively short, about 6 hours, you can replay scenes at any time. Whether this is because you have a favourite or want to pick up the achievements, the story may not change, but the Zen and cozy-like gameplay can be enjoyed repeatedly.
So, I guess Woodo shares some of the best parts of a colouring book, jigsaw puzzle, building blocks…oh and a little of a hidden objects game too. A lot of my favourite playthings as a child, and likely why this game has captured my heart. If you like games like Unpacking or A Little to the Left, you’ll also enjoy Woodo.
Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.
**Special thanks to Julia from Tiny Monks Tales and Daedalic Entertainment for the review code**
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