Twinkleby Review

Cozy games bring out a lot of my creativity in their relaxed environments, especially when they feature such adorable, inviting imagery. This is what drew me to Twinkleby originally. Its cute characters, objects, and especially houses reminded me so much of when I used to play with My Littlest Pet Shop and Bratz dolls, along with the dollhouse I’d curate with all their things. Not only did this entice me, but the decorating elements sealed the deal for my interest. I was transported back into my childhood bedroom as I began playing.

Twinkleby is a light-hearted, dollhouse-like, cozy decorating game that features various cute characters for you to cater to their needs. This is done by a thought bubble featured around them that has various pictured needs, such as somewhere to sleep, food and drinks, music, or plants. That’s actually as far as any “story” goes when creating your curated world for the neighbours that come by to be featured on your island. It’s unfortunate that Twinkleby does not feature a real narrative to delve into, but despite this, much like when I was a child I’d come up with my own story as to why certain characters lived together and had certain things.

The whole premise of Twinkleby is to make a home/neighbourhood for characters to live in. A range of neighbours will come and visit the island you’ll be on, and require their needs to be met to reach their full happiness. Once everyone is happy, it’ll cut to a screen of them singing you a little song and rewarding you for your efforts with the things in their bags. You can then continue your decorating journey onto the next island pictured on your map, or onto a secret one with the map fragments you obtain.

Pretty neighbourhood

In Twinkleby, you gain star-shaped currency called Stellars, which is mostly collected passively. The galactic currency will fall from the sky, be included in gifts from neighbours, chests, from simply placing objects down, or (if you’re lucky) from a Stellar shower landing on your island. And all that is needed to collect them is hovering your cursor over them, which makes it pretty similar to how Super Mario Galaxy 2 Star Bits work.

Collecting Stellars is a big part of the game as it allows you to buy objects and keys, and obtain free cosmetics, keys, and objects through the passive reward system of simply collecting them in each level. Once you gain enough of the stars, you’ll be prompted with a screen rewarding you for simply playing the game. You can keep track of this through a bar that is located at the bottom of your screen as well.

There are many objects to buy and obtain as you play, and each object is part of a set. Once you obtain all the objects in a set, you get an additional item for free that you can use. It’s a great incentive to use the hundreds of Stellars you gain to buy as many objects as you can, and luckily, you can buy the same object over and over again if needed.

Now I’m hungry

Unfortunately, Twinkleby does have some quirks, such as no diagonal placement, no search option for items, and incredibly slow reaction time from characters. As you try to fulfil a character’s desires, you’ll place the needed objects for them to interact with, and sometimes they will flat-out ignore them and interact with other things. It’s especially frustrating when you are on a large-scale island and they completely walk away from the aesthetic you have curated for them. To combat this, I dragged the objects outside and closer to the character, but this only worked some of the time. I also tried to move the characters themselves to the location I wanted them in, and I was met with a brief stop of motion from said character because all I could do was poke them. This especially infuriated me, and I eventually ignored the character and let them wander about for what felt like too long a time until they were happy.

Twinkleby also allows you to place a character’s bag in the home you want them to live in; however, characters still venture into other homes and fill up their happiness bar through someone else’s home. For me, this killed the idea of characters all having their own homes, as they can waltz into anyone’s abode.

Customising time

Despite these niggling issues, Twinkleby still provides a long, enjoyable experience that allows you to relax. There are many customisable options to unlock as you play such as the weather, objects, season, and time of day, plus a huge catalogue of items in the shop to obtain, along with seasonal items. It’s easy to understand and pick up the game regardless of whether you’re using a controller or mouse and keyboard; navigating menus and placing items is as easy and breezy as it should be in a game of this ilk. In a nice touch, if you want to remove something from your island, all you need to do is literally drop it off the island.

Twinkleby features charming imagery that makes it simple to determine what objects are. And the soundtrack only amplifies the adorableness, being reminiscent of a gentle lullaby. But despite this calming music that keeps things relaxing, I found it to get lost at times and eventually played my own music in the background as I played.

Surprisingly, Twinkleby reminded me of the hours I have spent playing the various Animal Crossing titles. It features similar imagery and cute characters, but it didn’t need all the dedication Animal Crossing requires when playing, which makes it relaxing and simple to enjoy.

DOCTOR WHO?!?

Unfortunately, although Twinkleby provided a classic, wholesome experience, I wasn’t completely captivated by the game. This doesn’t mean Twinkleby doesn’t provide a fun experience, but rather, after a while, I found my mind wandering, becoming a little bored with the gameplay as I impatiently waited for characters to interact with placed objects for exceedingly long times.

Final Thoughts

Twinkleby is an enjoyable decorating game that has dollhouse-like features, which will capture your attention for hours if cozy zen building games are your jam. It has a resemblance to Animal Crossing and will help you wind down from your day. Although there is no featured story and a few design quirks, it’s still an enjoyable game that requires you not to think too much to curate and customise to your heart’s desire.

Reviewed on PC // Review code supplied by publisher

Click here for more information on WellPlayed’s review policy and ethics