Ooh, yeah, we slicer-dicer, spud
I liked the cut of this one’s jib from the start. The white, minimalist architecture with splashes of player-inserted color sort of held hints of Unfinished Swan. The pre-built environment with its line-drawn aesthetic for objects in the distance brought back pleasant associations with Gravity Rush, a favorite. It’s basically Minecraft, but for me. More navel-gazing, less tedium. Clean, enviable design.
Bokida, which you can presently play for free, in-browser via that link, features a smooth building mechanic that allows you to place blocks one and a time or effectively paint 3D structures by holding down the mouse. Additionally, there’s is a precision cutting mechanic akin to Metal Gear Rising’s, as well as a sort of force push, that lets you turn your right angled masterpieces into sharp, colorful detritus.
The music is soothing, the mechanics — cutting and subsequent physics-based response in particular –are fun to toy with, and the weird, existing world is fun to climb and explore just for the sake of doing it. You can spare a few minutes to build and destroy. It feels good, remember?