“Kids” Review

Kids

Grade: B+

A piece of animated art

Kids is a straight-up art house experience right at your computer. The interactive animations are a series of short vignettes. There’s a metaphorical theme expressed in the act of following and leading.

The scenes play out in various modes. You are both in crowds and tunnels, and the background switches out between black background and white as the scenes shift.

Have you ever been to an art show and you weren’t quite sure what you just saw? But, you know that it was something worth seeing. That’s “Kids” in a nutshell. You’ll see whatever it is you want to see as you play this game. There’s no text, and it’s left to the eye of the beholder to find meaning in each scene.

A birthing canal? An Intestinal tube? The game is left purposefully unclear.

Gameplay

The controls are just point-and-click and drag. The movement is expressed through these hand-drawn stick figures and black and white backgrounds. Sometimes you are launching the people. Sometimes you’re pushing them along. My only knock on the experience is that it is often not always clear what you should be doing. That sense of discomfort for the player is a feature, not a bug, though.

Falling “Kids” are the core theme we keep coming back to.

There is a beautiful sound design in “Kids” I recommend playing it with headphones as there’s even left/right sound balancing. You’ll find ethereal music and excellent foley work throughout as well.

In Kids, you could enjoy the animations and sound, which is worth the admission price. Or, you could think about the deeper meanings of life and what it means to live in society. That’s up to you how deep you want to go.

Want to see more? Explore all itch.io bundle for racial equality and justice game reviews.