Calico is a recent release that likely flew under the radar of most players. Produced by a two person team, it's a community simulator in the vein of The Sims. Calico offers a relaxing, wholesome experience for anyone who ever wanted to be a magical girl running their own cat café.
The game sounds enticing for animal lovers looking for some escapist fun. It's a clear alternative to recent games, but it doesn't have all the bugs out yet.. Here's what critics are saying about Calico, which is available on PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and iOS devices.
Drea Bunce, The Sixth Axis: "The first thing you need to do with Calico is throw out everything you think you know about video game control layouts. With no way to change the pre-set controls, and no diagram or tutorial, you’re left to muddle through a very bizarre set of controls. ‘B’ is now ‘A’ -- possibly thanks to the Nintendo Switch’s singular layout -- your D-pad is irrelevant, and every control you can think of seems to be assigned a button at random. Once you figure it all out, it’s way more fun to play, but then the sheer amount of the screen freezing makes me think the game wasn’t quite ready to be released."
Heidi Kemps, GameSpot: "Had my third-grade self seen Calico, an open-world animal café and social interaction game, she would have lost her mind. Calico embraces an aesthetic and theme that is shamelessly, unabashedly girly in the best ways--a world of happy magical girls living in pastel-colored lands with fluffy, cotton-candy trees where all kinds of lovable animals roam freely. But while Calico's concept and visuals are a delight, the simplistic, bug-ridden gameplay dragged me kicking and screaming out of the childhood fantasy world I so wanted to exist in."
Geoff Girardin, Keen Gamer: "A big thing that I really enjoyed was that, from what I’ve been able to find, there aren’t any pronouns in regards to the player character. You can customize to a surprising degree, as much of the body that would typically adhere to gender is based on sliders. In a weird sense, it means that an adorable game about cats has a 'boob slider', something normally used in games to purport a misogynistic viewpoint. Here though, it’s not used to encourage a sexualized appearance but simply to allow players to design their character as they see fit. Think more Dream Daddy than The Sims mods."
James (@oKidUKo), The Xbox Hub: "Bizarrely, the cat café appears to be irrelevant though, with it being very unclear how to make a living from this venture. Instead you’ll spend more of your time outside, meeting other folk, accepting their quests and earning money through performing these good deeds. Whether undertaking tasks for the Mayor of Heart Village, searching for missing bunnies for Ash, or reuniting the Owl Club, there are money and item rewards on offer. What’s nice is that by chatting and helping them out, you’ll get further insight into the locals’ lives; there are some lovely friendships and relationships to hear about while doing the quests."
Laura Gray, Screen Rant: "The other issue that Calico struggles with happens during the cooking mini-game in the kitchen. When a player decides to cook treats for the café, they are shrunk down to scurry over the countertop, using the recipe as a guide for what ingredients they need to pick up and toss in the mixing bowl. However, gravity doesn't appear to work correctly when a player is selecting ingredients, and it is easy to throw the items well past the bowl, or kick them into areas that the player can no longer interact with. Because of this, players will find they must reset their mini-game frequently to be able to access the ingredients again."
Heather Johnson, Hey Poor Player: While researching Calico to see if others were enjoying this absolutely magical experience as much as I was, I noticed a few people saying the game had some bugs that were putting a damper on their playthroughs. A bit more digging showed that the dev team has released two patches after launch with the intention of releasing more as necessary. Although I admit I saw one instance of a bug where dialog options were sometimes doubled for me, I found Calico to be a very smooth experience -- it would appear that the dev team has patched the problems earlier players faced."
Manu Delgado, Vandal: "At a visual level there is a scale that is never balanced: sometimes the game is tremendously beautiful, with landscapes that feel great about that low-poly watercolor style that it presents, but others, especially in short distances, leave glimpse a touch poorer than it seems at first; in general it seems that the team has not found a clear aesthetic and sometimes plays in two leagues that do not combine well at all."
Marielle Bokor, Third Coast Review: "Do I like the world enough to deal with bad controls, bugs and quests that can just get stuck or go back a step? Yes, I do. But would I recommend it to someone else to play? Probably not."
Helen Ashcroft, The Gamer: "Overall, the game does deliver what it promises: magic girls, animals, cute furniture, a relaxed pace, and the chance to bend the rules with magic and ride a giant cat. However, it also has some glitches, a few quirks in its gameplay, and some slightly iffy controls. How much you get out of Calico will truly depend on how much you love its themes as well as your tolerance for glitches. It will also matter if you were looking for a game that lets you actually run a café, since this aspect of gameplay is surprisingly passive."