| Quick Verdict: If you take nothing else away from this review, take this. You need this game, I don’t care what kind of cozy gamer you are. If you don’t play Smushi Come Home, you’re missing out on an amazing experience. |
| Game: | Smushi Come Home |
| Developer(s): | SomeHumbleOnion |
| Publisher: | Mooneye Studios |
| Review Score: | 10 |
| Cozy Score: | 11 |
| Price: | $19.99 |
| Pros: | This game is so relaxing, the adventure is easy-going, the art is so sweet… The world built for Smushi Come Home is the perfect game to run around in. |
| Cons: | None. |
| Platforms: | Steam and Nintendo Switch |
| Genres: | Platformer, Adventure |
Table of Contents
You can get me to play pretty much anything if there’s a mushroom involved. (I wish that was an exaggeration.) So, when the newest Humble Bundle of cozy games dropped into my ever-growing hoard, I was excited to see Smushi Come Home as part of it.
Mushrooms, adventure, and exploration? If it only had potions and a cat, I’d say that’s the exact formula for my brand of cozy.
Smushi Come Home Gameplay and Controls
Smushi Come Home is an endearing game about a mushroom who lives on an island in the middle of a lake with their three younger brothers. You get the sense that you’re the caretaker and that nothing really works without you.
So much so, that when a bird swoops down to steal one of your brothers, you get in the way and are whisked off instead. You’re taken far from everything familiar and dropped into a nest of unhatched eggs.
Your adventure begins here as you pick your way through the oversized fauna and discarded human items. Some of such items will be useful in your adventures. It’s honestly the most adorable thing when you come upon a set of hex wrenches and the smallest wrench becomes your pickaxe to mine up crystals.
Through your adventure, you’ll meet a whole host of interesting bug- and shroom-type characters. Nearly all of them are helpful and will teach you how to climb and glide your way through lands of various seasons and caves.
What I particularly loved about Smushi Come Home was that while it had a lot of elements that I generally stay away from, it presented them in a low-stress format. I’m the worst when it comes to parkour, swimming challenges, and flying courses, even worse when they’re timed.
However, I had no troubles getting through all of these things – even the timed elements! But, if you are having trouble, there is a setting to make things easier. I think it’s only for the obstacle course though. I didn’t explore it since I didn’t need it. Nevertheless, I’m glad it was included.
I never had any problems with controls, but the camera seemed a little sensitive at first. Honestly, that was just a learning curve. Once you get into the meat of gameplay, you’ll have it figured out. (I played with a controller, so I don’t know how fluid it is to play with a keyboard.)
And, as a side note, if you’re looking to 100% the game, you may find the achievement related to wind essences to be hard to complete. Please note that there are 5 essences and the one you get from completing air challenges is not one of them.
Art and Sound
I can’t say enough good things about the design of Smushi Come Home. Everything was perfect. The characters were varied and adorable and the lands were filled to the brim with foliage and objects.
I really enjoyed getting to run around and peek behind every nook and cranny to not only find the crystals but to see every inch of these gorgeous maps.
I have zero complaints about the music. If I’m honest, I don’t remember much about it because I was so zoned into the surroundings.
Coziness and Cons
I wanted to say that if I could give this a cozier score than 10, I would, but I’m the writer and this is my system. So, eff it. This is the first game to get a cozy score of 11. I don’t make the rules, except that I do.
Smushi Come Home was a seriously cozy adventure that I was happy to sink five and a half hours into. Even with elements that usually stress me out, I never felt like something was outside of my capacity. It was refreshing to be served these challenges with the expectation that I would succeed rather than try to test my skills.
As far as cons… I don’t have any. This game delivered everything I wanted and did so perfectly.
Verdict
I can’t recommend Smushi Come Home enough. This game is short enough to play in a day but also chill enough to play in short bursts if you only have a little time.
I’ve reviewed a lot of games for Comfy Cozy Gaming this year and Smushi Come Home is by far the coziest and low-stress game I’ve played so far and likely will play all year.
Sometimes, I struggle to find things to find as a con, but I seriously don’t have any for this game. If you want to have the coziest gameplay experience, then you’ll want to grab Smushi Come Home for $19.99 on Steam or Nintendo Switch. You will not regret it.
[…] Smushi Come Home is normally $19.99 but is on sale at 30% off for 13.99. It’s an amazing exploration game where you play as a mushroom trying to get back to your island. This is the game that broke our cozy meter score in the review we wrote for Smushi Come Home. […]
I’ve just completed the game! And it’s the cutest game I’ve ever played! I’d be a much kinder person if I had this game in my youth.
It’s fantastic, I don’t usually replay games, but I might have to next year just to recapture the charm.
[…] you want a place to just run around and do fetch quests, then you should check out our review for Smushi Come Home, I will never be able to recommend that gem of a game […]
[…] Slay the Princess was a lot of fun. I enjoyed playing it on her side at every turn that I could. It’s clear that you could have gone more on the narrator’s side or perhaps even forged a path down the middle. I’ve only played through once, but even after finishing the game, I only got 20% of the achievements.The replayability of this game is pretty solid. I estimate I could probably get two more playthroughs without much overlap.I highly recommend Slay the Princess and if you want to give it a try, you can get it on Steam for $17.99. If Horror isn’t your speed, you may have more fun with one of my all-time favorites, Smushi Come Home. […]
[…] sim-type games, you could go on a little adventure with a game I’m always happy to recommend. Smushi Come Home is a true delight and if you haven’t checked out our review of it, you absolutely […]
[…] If you want to get Botany Manor, it releases on April 9th, for $24.99. If this is somehow not your groove, you may want to check out the review I did on another game that stole my heart, Smushi Come Home. […]
[…] If you want other games that gave me the same cozy vibes, then you can check out my highly loved Smushi Come Home review. […]
[…] If you want to try out Clothing Store Simulator for yourself, you can get it for $12.99 over on Steam. And if this is too literal for you and you need something more fantasy-based, I’ll never stop suggesting our review for Smushi Come Home. […]
[…] You are unable to put an item back where it goes and you can’t toss items. Generally, if it’s an unimportant item, it will likely end up on the floor.Controls really get gummy and annoying during moments when a certain piece has to go into a very specific place. You can’t just arrange things; you have to hover around until you’re prompted that you can place it.I really wanted to love Simpler Times and I love this idea so much. I just feel like the execution wasn’t the best. And for a game so simple, it pulled hard on my graphics. I had to scale it down to not lag.I wish I had more positive things to say. Lo-fi is generally a safe bet, but nothing was particularly remarkable in the line-up and, while the graphics were beautiful, all the negatives were taking away from the experience.I wish more time had gone into the controls. I definitely wish there had been at least a prompt the first time you play a vinyl to let you know you’re unable to return as well.To be honest, I’m struggling with the score. Realistically, I think that it’s a 6.5, but we don’t do half-scores. It’s definitely not a 6, but it’s, also, not realistically a 7.You’ll have to weigh things for yourself on whether you want to play Simpler Times. It’s a $10 game that lasts 1.5-2 hours and the controls aren’t the best. I enjoyed the themes of the game, but I think it just needed more polish.If you want to try out Simpler Times, you can get it on Steam for $9.99. If you’re unsure, I’d recommend spending two more dollars and playing Smushi Come Home. […]
[…] I felt like a hamster spinning my wheels just running circles from one campsite to another to pick up items that I can trade in hopes of being able to bring building materials back to the nexus.It felt like a never ended fetch quest that I was getting punished for by losing items.Unless you keep something really good to barter, you have to make a few moves just to get items to trade and by the time that five night comes around, you’re not exactly flush with items.It was grinding without seeing enough progress and maybe that’s just on me.It’s not a bad game, not by any means. It’s just not for me.If you want to try out Fireside for yourself, it’s on Steam for $14.99. If you want to check out a review that fit more to my personal enjoyment, you can check out my constant recommendation of Smushi Come Home. […]
[…] This means that while everything rotates out, this one item will stay reserved until you cancel the reservation or buy it. So, if you don’t have the money on a given day, you’re not missing out.There are more shops to enjoy like the bike shop, but I’m serious when I say I’ve only just scratched the surface several hours in. I’ve been having the best time exploring and making goofy paintings, so I’m not making much progress in furthering the story yet.I may be missing some finer points because I lost my notes during a power outage, but just trust me when I say that I absolutely loved Été and it’s going into my little category on Steam where I stash games that I want to keep playing.This game is a little graphic intensive and my dino-computer had a hard time, but I was able to fiddle with some settings to make it workable. I only ran into one glitch where I fell through the world, but I couldn’t repeat it. And, since I was working from a pre-launch version, I’m not really counting it as a hard knock to the score.If you want to try out Été, you can – RECORD SCRATCH – Hi, it’s me inserting myself like some early 2000’s sitcom. Think of me like your comfy cozy Ron Howard. Anyway, I had to pull up the e-mail to figure out the price since I didn’t know it off-hand. You guys, they project that it’s a 5-10 hour game to complete.If you suffer from goblin brain, you’re going to get SO much more out of this, I promise you.Okay, now… if you want to try out Été, you can grab it on Steam starting July 23rd for —-. If you want more of a sense of adventure, then you know I’m going to point you to my staple recommendation. Everyone say it with me… Smushi Come Home. […]