Systems: Windows, Linux,
Release Date: Q3 2024
Publisher: Roshan Nowshad
Developer: Roshan Nowshad
Time Spent: 10 Minutes
It's Kooky - Land of Aotearoa is just that, a kooky little point-and-click find-it game from New Zealand-based indie game developer Roshan Nowshad. Not being a resident of the Southern Hemisphere, I had to look up "Aotearoa" to find out that it is the Māori name for what was later named New Zealand, or specifically, the North Island. This is all somewhat important as will be made evident a little bit later.
The bulk of It's Kooky is a point-and-click timed finding game and the demo consists of three separate stages with each stage making up a single black-and-white drawing uncrowded with people* where you look for things that are out of place. We're talking really out of place, not just someone holding a shovel in a kitchen or five forks at a place setting, but more like a horse wearing swim trunks and sunglasses while wakeboarding behind a 17th-century European jolly boat. Or a bear (I think it's a bear, or it could be a giant bipedal capybara; no, yeah, it's a bear) running while holding a large two-tiered birthday cake. You know, kooky things, things that are out of place. Each stage has a counter of the number of silly things you have to find and at the end, you are told how fast you found all of the objects. You're also unable to zoom out to see the entire picture, otherwise you could just click everything in a few seconds. Forcing the player to zoom in and pan around a bit not only elongates the amount of time spent in each stage but also allows the player to have a closer look at some of the amusing illustrations. Surprisingly, or maybe not because this is a demo, but I noticed no randomization in the placement of some of the characters you're supposed to find, so every time you start, everything is in the exact same place. Sadly, this means that apart from younger children who are just starting out playing video games, there is little replay value.
Māori and New Zealand history also play an interesting part in this game. Before you start each stage, there is a title screen that sets the location for where you will be looking for strange and silly things that don't belong; not that a person sitting in a recliner up in a tree canopy would be normal in any time period. These bits of information range from something you might find in a history textbook, to information that the State of Florida would likely decry as being too woke. At least in the demo, the historical information did not seem to play any factor in what was needed to look out for, but it honestly made me feel a little "eh" looking for a bird rollerblading on a stump after reading about how European colonizers deforested 99.7% of kauri forests on the North Island in the 19th century.
I think I would self-categorize It's Kooky - Land of Aotearoa as a wind-down game, something to play after a higher energy or mentally taxing game, like Dark Souls or Final Fantasy VII. But then only so long as there are new things to find rather than replaying previous stages where you already found everything that's a bit silly. It would also be incredibly short as I spent 10 minutes on the Steam Deck in total and that was only three stages and 30 silly things; although the last stage does introduce an additional item to locate in specific stages. There are other games in the It's Kooky franchise and they both look to be in a similar vein, although they vary in price from $2.99 - $1.50, so I would expect It's Kooky - Land of Aotearoa to be similarly priced. And really, for that amount, maybe this game doesn't really need to be any more than it already is. A bit of silliness, a bit of New Zealand history, some amusing art, and some appropriate background music. Maybe that's just enough.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental*P.S. What I mean by "uncrowded" is that yes, there are people as you can see above, but we're not talking Where's Waldo level of crowds.
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