Who doesn’t love cute animals? Ever since I saw the trailer for Button City on the Wholesome Direct, I just couldn’t help myself. I had to play it. Button City’s bright colors, cute characters, and cozy, wholesome feel make for an engaging and exciting experience.

Button City is a narrative adventure game focused on young animal kids fighting to save their local arcade from being purchased by a literal corporate fatcat. You play as Fennel, a fox who is new to town and spent most of his summer in his room playing video games. His mother sends him out of the house to go experience the town, and he finds Button City, a local arcade.

He befriends a cast of colorful characters, including (my personal favorite) Chive, a rabbit in a wheelchair who makes gadgets and modifies the arcade machines so she can play them without difficulties. As a disabled person myself, I love seeing a representation of not only a female character getting into things like robotics, modding, and inventing, but also seeing a disabled character that isn’t used as a punchline.

Others in the cast of characters include Lavender the Panda and other members of Fennel’s friend circle. They are drawn together by a game known as Gobabots, which you can actually play, among other various minigames. Minigames serve to move the story along in certain places, but also you can earn coins and a currency known as Pal Points.

Both currencies can be used for various things in-game, from cosmetic items to items that will give you an edge in the minigames. There are several differing minigames involved that I won’t spoil because I think they need to be experienced. There is one I am going to mention though, called Prisma Beats.

Prisma Beats is a take on Dance Dance Revolution. However, I am really starting to wonder if you need octopus arms to do well in it, or maybe 8 fingers? The amount of directional inputs you need to do in a given second (including pressing two buttons at once sometimes) is ridiculous. Luckily I haven’t run into a situation where that minigame was required to progress.

When you aren’t in the arcade playing games with your friends, you are exploring the town in Button City and doing various quests. The quests are super fun and can involve solving puzzles or just talking to people around town. There are usually multiple dialogue options, which make for some cute and fun interactions with the colorful cast of characters in town.

Resolving quests can either get you cosmetic items, items for Fennel’s bedroom or can get you currency/consumables. No matter what the reward is, the quests are incredibly fun and rewarding. Also, I should mention that there are several accessibility options in Button City for the visually impaired. Not only can you alter the size of the font for speech bubbles, but you can also change the font too. There are three font options that can change the way text looks, making it easier to read for some people.

Honestly, Button City is a breath of fresh air for me. When I don’t want to spend time fighting enemies or doing anything particularly involved in a game, Button City is there for me to relax and unwind. The graphics aren’t super demanding, the characters are cute, and I haven’t run into any bugs. If you’re looking for a game to play with kids or siblings, or even just something chill to play on your own, Button City will scratch that itch nicely.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Button City was provided by Subliminal Gaming for this review.

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Button City

$19.99 USD

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Adorable Characters and Visuals
• Fun, Laid-Back Gameplay
• Cute, Wholesome Story
• Fantastic Representation and Accessibility
• Lots of Quests and Things to Do

Cons

• PrismaBeats is a Bit Too Physically Demanding