Choconoa

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Summary: Played this with a group of kids at a local gaming event for youth (ages 7-9) and it went over very well. The kids even excitedly declared it was one of their favorite Steam games ever. Everyone at the event thought it was fun, even if some adults felt it could use a little more polish. Longer version: I received a free copy of this game from the developer who submitted it to our "Kids That Game" curated group so we could try it at one of our biweekly events. We were asked to have fun, and if we wanted the developer would be happy to get an honest review back from both the kids and their adult guardians. We jumped at the chance! Take-aways noted below, with "+" for things we loved at the top, and "-" for areas of opportunity at the bottom. ✔️Average difficulty was about right. The kids felt challenged, but not overwhelmed. They were eager to try again at every failure, and would excitedly remind each other when it was a new player's turn. ✔️The visual style went over very well with kids and adults alike, who felt it was not just cute, but overall very attractive and "cleaner", much less "noisy" than a lot of other games. This is immensely useful for both very young, and older more casual players. ✔️The quick turns meant a lot of people could get involved, turning what was otherwise a single-player game into a fun group "hot seat" activity. ✔️Collecting chocolate and candy is a goal that easily incentivizes and rewards kids. ✔️No blood or gore helped keep things family friendly. ❌Understanding initial goals, and even how to get to the first level, required unnecessary scrutiny from the adults in the room. The kids knew they had to collect items to open doors, but finding the first accessible levels took 10 minutes of help from the adults to get started. This definitely needs to see improvement. ❌Some levels have odd spikes in difficulty at certain points. This meant that some younger kids' turns ended much less satisfyingly than those of greater experience. It might be nice to clean up those spikes or add more checkpoints. ❌Some jumps and platforms were finicky, and seemed a bit "off" - it felt unfair when (for example) a character appeared to dodge a rolling pin, or land a tough jump, only to be hit anyway or fall through the edge of a solid object. ❌Some adults were discouraged by the emphasis on junk food. They voiced concern that rewarding kids with candy and chocolate sends an unhealthy message. ❌Enemies, environments and hazards were notably repetitive. Mixed feelings on this, as some found it boring while others felt it helped the younger players quickly recognize game elements and master the real challenges (jumps, combat, timing) faster. ❌Some parents thought the use of knives as environmental hazards was a bit much. Others felt it was fine, given there was no actual blood or gore. Characters just faint. Some even believed using knives helped kids quickly recognize it as a hazard and liked that it kept to the "food and cooking" theme. ❌Camera control took some getting used to. It's difficult to control manually, especially in the open "hub" area before accessing levels. But eventually, everyone got used to leaving the camera alone to do its thing, and just focusing on character controls.