When I saw the first trailers and screenshots for Subliminal Games' Button City I was very excited for a cute little game where you try to save your local arcade. Fun characters, a killer art style, and some pleasant bops on the soundtrack made this game seem like a home-run for me, but I ended up with mixed feelings on the game as a whole.

Button City is downright charming and evokes some serious nostalgia from the GameCube era, however some of the game-design choices remind me of some of the flaws and quirks of this period in gaming.

Strengths:

Characters- The characters in Button City are adorable. The art in this game is reminiscent of GameCube era classics like Animal Crossing and I sense some inspiration from 2017's narrative-focused, Night in the Woods. The cute characters present a disarming facade which belies the more serious and real themes that the game presents.

Short and Sweet - This game's story can be completed in around 4 to 5 hours, but I could see it taking around 10 to 15 for completionists. If you stop and smell the flowers and play more mini-games you can definitely invest more time into Button City. That said, I love that the game doesn't over-stay its welcome or feel the need to add bloat in order to reach some arbitrary gameplay length mark.

Relatable- One really interesting component of Button City is getting into the mind of the new kid. The game explores loneliness, camaraderie, conflict between friends, and familial strife. There's a lot here and it's all experienced through the lens of a child, who only kind of gets what's going on. You can really empathize with the protagonist, Fennel, as he tries to figure out how to process some very complex and grown-up issues. There are shades of gray that are painted in this game that I really enjoy. The world is cute and pleasant, but it's not without hardship. I love the way this game presents suffering, but also the way people can come together and manage despite a difficult world.

Aesthetic- The game has an extremely consistent cutesy, low-poly aesthetic. Again it really brings me back to the late N64 to GameCube era. Maybe it's nostalgia that makes me love this artstyle so much, but I think it really is a boon to the game's relaxed mood. The dialog and soundtrack also do a lot of leg-work in creating a pleasant, but imperfect world.

Initial D- It has an initial D mini-game. It's great! Well designed and tons of fun.

Multi-track drifting!

Weaknesses

Is Walking and Speaking to NPCs Gameplay? - This is fundamentally a personal question and opinion. Depending on your answer to this question, it will probably determine if Button City is for you or not. There's a lot of walking around the environment trying to find which character to speak with in order to move the story along. I tend to think that this game design is a huge risk and really requires A LOT of strength in the writing department to compensate for the lack of engagement inherent to this design. It worked in Undertale and Night in the Woods (some of my personal favorite games!) however I think that this design choice was not ideal for this game.

One observation that I have in playing through Button City as opposed to Undertale or Night in the Woods is that Button City is less linear and takes longer to navigate than the other two titles. Having a third dimension to walk around in and search through makes it a little harder to navigate, making what should be simple quests into sometimes frustrating exercises. This could have been remedied with highlighting important dialog text like in the 3D Zelda games or maybe even with a more robust notes section in the quest tab of the menu. I took a break from playing through the main quest and when I came back four or five days later, I had a little trouble finding who exactly I was supposed to talk to and where they were located.

The walking speed also is fairly slow which can make it a little annoying when you're trying to figure out where to go.

In spite of this criticism, I would grant that these are intentional design choices. Moving slowly and being forced to interact with the world more can increase immersion and make you take your time in Button City. This "stop and smell the flowers," type of design makes sense with the general vibe of the game and I understand what they were going for, but I don't know if it is for me personally. I would also like to mention here that many GameCube era games had a similar issue. Games like Custom Robo or Amazing Island had similar issues and even a similar design structure (walking around through bits of story and dialogue between mini-game segments).

Depth of Story - This again, is another completely subjective critique.

***Story Spoilers Ahead!!***

The plot of this game is basically that an evil rich pig (he's actually a cat, a fat-cat if you will) comes into town and wants to buyout the local arcade and replace it with an Amazon/Walmart/Target. The kind old man, Mr. Button, who owns the arcade is being forced to sell the arcade because he is sick and can't afford his medical bills. A real American Story, baby.

Basically, the kids band together to save the local arcade and in the end they throw the fat cat out of town and everybody in the town comes together to help pay Mr. Button's bills.

There's a healthy dose of Universal Healthcare propaganda in here, which I always appreciate, but I think it was done in a little bit of a heavy handed way. (i.e. "Mr. Button is being punished for something that he can't control! That's not fair!") I understand that the game is primarily from the perspective of children, however I think the message was a bit unexamined. It feels idealistic and it honestly breaks my immersion a little bit, the dialogue goes from kids hanging out and trying to save their arcade to a conversation between 19 year-olds figuring out that their system may not be as great as they were promised by their parents.

Maybe I would have liked this story a little more if I were younger, but honestly the story feels a bit more like candy than a meal. It's sweet and does not take very long to digest. If you're a young lefty getting into Noam Chomsky and the words Slavoj Zizek and Capitalist Realism don't mean anything to you yet, this will probably be more your speed.

Personally, I would have preferred a little more ambiguity and uneasiness like in Night in the Woods, but that's really not what this is all about. Maybe this game has some much needed hope that I can learn to appreciate.

Closing Thoughts
The game's comfy and I liked it. I don't think it's for everyone and there's some design choices that held back what could have probably been a better game. If they make some sort of sequel that's more arcade-y and less narrative focused, like a mini-game compilation within the same world, I would totally play it. Regardless, great job to the devs and happy gaming everyone!

-beo.