In the modern gaming climate, there are numerous games filled to the brim with brutal violence, difficult combat, challenging puzzles, and deep narratives. While these genres all have their own appeal, it’s hard not to occasionally want something far more simple. A game designed for families, younger audiences, and anyone else eager to try it out. Nowadays, these kinds of titles are exceedingly rare, especially if you’re looking for something that isn’t from Nintendo. That’s where to a T comes in.
to a T is the latest game from Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy. It features a charming story told in episodes, several minigames, a fairly large explorable town, and an adorable art style. Plus, it has elements that pull from life simulators and features music from Rebecca Sugar, the creator and musician behind Steven Universe. In theory, these elements should come together to make a game perfect for all audiences. I am glad to say that, despite some minor gameplay issues, to a T is a great time from beginning to end that I highly recommend for families and younger players.
to a T is a Cartoon Come to Life
to a T feels like an old Nick Jr./Disney Junior cartoon come to life. The story focuses on a kid whose just turned thirteen and is ready to move to the next stage of his life. There’s just one catch: ever since he was a kid, he’s been stuck in a permanent t-pose.
As such, he’s constantly had to make compromises in his life in order to perform basic tasks. He has a special sink, toothbrush, and spoon, and plus he requires his dog (which you can name) to help him go to the bathroom. Further, he’s constantly being bullied at school due to his “disability.”
It’s a charming premise that’s enough to carry the story forward across eight episodes. Each episode lasts approximately 30 minutes, creating just around 4 hours of playtime in total. It really does feel like a game designed to be played periodically, specifically for kids coming home from school. As mentioned previously, it really does feel like a pre-K cartoon adapted into a video game, thanks to its visuals.
The art direction further builds on the inspiration from Nick Jr., akin to a show like Bubble Guppies. It’s cel-shaded with characters drawn with detail in the textures in the clothes and hair, but a lack of detail in the faces, further evoking those old cartoons. The inexplicable use of animal characters that walk on two legs among humans is a great touch, and helped to further add that charm.
In general, the character models are great and the sound design helps to offer more personality to those designs. Similarly to a game like The Sims, characters speak in jumbled sound bytes instead of dialogue, almost as if its their own unique language. It’s an extremely charming choice that manages to build on the game’s characters. For instance, there’s a crab who does people’s haircuts named Crabbiano, and their dialogue is just repeating several random words while subtitles appear on screen.
Another commonality with old cartoons is the emphasis on music. There are a lot of ambient tracks that play in the background, but the main tracks that people will notice are those provided by Rebecca Sugar and PREP. If we’re continuing the cartoon analogy, then PREP provides the opening theme and Sugar provides the ending theme for each episode. It’s a great idea and both tracks are instantly catchy.
However, there is one slight catch. When I said that they are the themes for “each episode,” I meant it. Every thirty minutes, you will hear these tracks, over and over and over again. Thankfully the cutscenes are skippable, but if you happen to be playing this with a younger family member, don’t be surprised if the lyrics, “my name is Giraffe, I went to a school, so I could learn how to cook” get stuck in your head for weeks after playing.
Overall though, the narrative, visuals, sound design, and music of to a T is quite great. The charm can be felt in every aspect in the game’s design and really helps to create an experience that players, regardless of age, will enjoy. There’s even a surprisingly emotional deeper theme about accepting people regardless of their differences.
That said, how does this separate itself from other games and other cartoons on the market? The game costs $19.99: if you’re looking for a cartoon-like experience, why go with this instead of the countless shows available via YouTube or streaming? Thankfully, the charm of to a T‘s art direction applies to its gameplay: it is simple yet effective. Despite this, it’s not without several key flaws that keep it from being perfect.
A Simply Fun Time, But Not Without Cost
It’s hard to pin down the exact gameplay style that to a T is going for. While the creator’s most well-known work, Katamari Damacy, goes for a surreal style that prioritizes puzzle-solving via rolling a ball, to a T doesn’t do anything even remotely similar. As mentioned previously, it’s more like a life simulator.
Every day, the t-posing teen (which you can customize at the beginning of the game) must go through the routine of most middle schoolers. They have to wake up in the morning, pick the right clothes to wear, go to the bathroom, wash their face, eat breakfast, brush their teeth, then go to school. Along the way, there are coins you can collect that can buy more customization options for the protagonist.
There are also some minigames along the way. These are short, usually optional, bite-sized games that can be replayed over and over again. If you perfect them, you get an achievement, but they’re not required in order to beat the game. The minigames vary from grabbing 99 popcorn in a short time limit, to bouncing up and done in order to grab as many coins as you can, or pressing buttons in a specific order for a gym warm-up. They’re fun and a great way to add variety to the gameplay formula.
That variety is sorely needed because other than that, the game is quite frankly too simple. Yes, it’s designed for kids, but there are plenty of modern games meant for children that have a great level of unique gameplay sequences. To a T lacks the dimension that you would expect from Takahashi’s previous work, as every episode functions exactly the same from a gameplay stand point. You do fundamentally the same tasks every single day with very little differences. Even if you follow my previous advice of breaking each episode into one session, rather than playing it all in one go, it may get repetitive very quickly.
There is also one major issue that was extremely frustrating throughout a lot of the mid-to-late game: the camera. In select instances when running around the city, the camera will zoom extremely far in to the focus, whether its the protagonist or one of the other playable characters. During these moments, I found it extremely difficult to get to a certain destination because I couldn’t tell where I was going.
For example, there’s one section where you’re looking for a mole. The map told me I was right on top of him, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where he was because the camera was too focused on the character I was playing as at that moment. It was only through sheer coincidence that I managed to press the right button at the right time in order to trigger a dialogue. There was also a glitch in the late game that prevented further progress, but thankfully that was patched very recently. Still, these issues are worth noting and detract from the overall experience.
Yet, with all that said, to a T still succeeds at its goal of creating a game perfect for families and young children. While the lack of a proper gameplay formula is disappointing, if you’re looking for a game for kids that is affordable and readily available on most platforms, then to a T is the right purchase for you.
The Perfect Shape
When I was a kid, I quickly fell in love with the gaming medium. Whether it was through the trend of games based on my favorite superheroes or the ever-reliable Mario franchise, there were so many ways for someone to become invested in the industry. In this era, I always find myself wondering how I can get my younger cousins to have the same love that I do for this medium. How can other parents find a way to use gaming as a form of education that also manages to be fun at the same time? I think to a T does a great job of filling that void for people.
There are definitely quite a few issues to note if you’re coming at this game from the perspective of the average player. The gameplay lacks any real depth or replayability, it’s quite repetitive due to its episodic nature, and the camera is far too zoomed in for the exploration you’re often required to do. There are also several glitches and bugs that are thankfully being patched. Yet these issues don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, because its not made for the average player: it’s made for someone whose never played a game in their life. In that lens, it more than succeeds.
The charming visual direction does a great job of resurrecting the style of the cartoons that were part of the childhoods of many. The music, while often grating due to its repetition, is catchy and quite fun to sing-a-long to. The sound design of how each character helps to build the personality of the game and each NPC. Plus, the story is a great time from beginning to end and has a surprisingly heartfelt meaning. The concept of rejecting a false idea of perfection in favor of accepting people despite their differences is deeply prescient and will likely hit hard for many. The opening theme having the lyrics “you are the perfect shape, we are the perfect shape” helps hammer that idea home even more.
The short runtime and affordable price will make it a favorite for many families, and one that I highly recommend. If you’re looking for a challenging yet fun platformer or life simulator similar to the likes of Mario or other Nintendo games, then this isn’t the pick for you. However, if you’re trying to find the right game to introduce your kid, your younger sibling, or another younger member of your family to the world of video games, then you’d be hard pressed to find a better option than to a T.
Disclaimer: Annapurna Interactive provided Final Weapon with a PlayStation 5 copy of to a T for review purposes.
