World’s cutest post workers - ‘KeyWe’ Mini Review
Developer: Stonewheat & Sons | Platform: PS5 | Playtime: 5:00
Launching alongside a major console release is a massive gamble – you could get lost in the mix of premier launch titles or be seen as slop trying to capitalise on hype and the much smaller selection of available titles. For the longest time, I thought KeyWe was the latter – the cover-art didn’t help but as I was looking for Co-op titles for Jade and myself I discovered it was the former. It’s not without its glitches but this is a solid co-op gem.
The premise is as simple as it is delightful, a pair of cute little Kiwi birds get off of a coach and find themselves hired by a big man in a remote outback post office. Together with an Octopus by the name of Lucy and a group of Cassowary, they’re going to deliver the post.
The game hosts four level types over 36 stages but each escalate in difficulty and change enough over the ingame seasons that these don’t get stale. The four styles are a package packing, typing out messages on a giant type writer (Our personal least favourite), piecing together messages from cut out text and finally a letter and package sorting system. They’re all quite fun to do and again the variants do keep things interesting. There are other levels known as Overtime Shifts - these are 12 bonus shifts that change up the gameplay massively. They’re less refined than the core 4 but as one and done ideas they’re pretty fun.
Each level is ranked from Bronze to Gold based on completion time. Over the course of the game, we won primarily silver, maybe one or two golds and one or two bronzes. Some challenges can be failed by running out of time but if you and your partner are genuinely trying then silvers are pretty easy to earn. Each rank offers tickets and these tickets can be used in the shop to customise your Kiwi - colour, size, clothing including hats, backpacks and glasses - the works. Special outfits can be earned by finding secret collectibles in a handful of levels too, so there’s replaybility in finding those as well as reaching Golds.
The game wasn’t without it’s issues though. I played online as the host and there were a few occasions where the two games desynced from each other as well as glitches such as important items disapearing or clipping through the floor. I reckon these were more issues with the game being played online and wouldn’t happen in local co-op, which is also an option here.
I don’t think KeyWe is a game that should have been slept on but it’s release timing did it no favours. It’s cheap as dirt now so if you’re looking for a fun couch co-op session with a friend then you’d be hardpressed to find something as accessible as KeyWe.
