Pickle's Book Review

Meet Pickle. He looks like a grown up Tamagotchi, dresses in royal attire, and lives inside of a book.

With the turn of every page, Pickle will find himself surrounded by new interactive objects that will each react to the players' touch in a different way. Whereas certain objects will transport players to a new and mysterious location, others will just set off a small animation in relation to Pickle. Many of these are slightly too drawn out in length and speed, which will be fine for children but agitating for adults, and therein lies the target audience.

It's fair to say that 90% of the time I had no idea what was going on. One minute some form of dastardly baron figure was stealing my toy boat as Pickle was on the toilet taking care of business, the next I was racing across an alphabet desert in pursuit of the caped fiend. The pixelated, pastel-colored visuals are charming and just one instance of the many Japanese flourishes to the game - from the retro sound effects to the off-beat humor. Besides the intro there are next to no words throughout, so youngsters can enjoy this curious experience as it unfolds.

While it's unquestionably bizarre and unexpected, Pickle's Book is fascinating. I had no idea what was going to come next, and that was refreshing. No matter how random each consequent scenario was I found myself to be completely invested in it, waiting for the next one to play out.

Unsurprisingly, Pickle's Book is difficult to categorize. It's not a game in any real sense, but it's not a book either. It's simply an adventure of the imagination that kids and adults alike will be both curious about and probably a little perturbed by. There's a lot of content included, but $4.99 is too expensive for what would more than not be described as a novelty by most. Still, it'll keep the kids quiet for hours, so it really depends on who's buying (and how noisy their kids are).