Wattam is a game that is particularly difficult to categorize. For one, I'm not entirely sure it really classifies as much of a game, as it does an interactive early-childhood show. Created by Katamari Demacy designer Keita Takahashi, Wattam has you switching between a myriad of anthropomorphized objects, fruit, trees, and shapes to complete minor objectives to then unlock even more anthropomorphized friends. And that's the basic loop and goal of the game: unlock all of the friends and get to the end of the story (and, surprisingly, there is a story).
Wattam is an interesting idea, but outside of that and perhaps its stylistic charm, the idea is about all it has going for it. Discovering friends through abstract goals is nothing new, and it plays like the old flash Grow games, but for toddlers. It is probably obvious by how many times I've reference young children in this review that this game has little to no challenge. Your objectives are clearly indicated, with little if any way of misunderstanding them. Largely, your tasks have you going to one character or another and talking to them, or moving from one "biome" (as seen in the image above) to another. Simple as these tasks can be, they do occasionally get really fucking weird. At one point, you are to take control of a seed, plant yourself in the ground, then form a circle around the sprout with the other characters and dance around it until it grows into a tree. Then, you play as the tree and eat the other characters and plop them out of your branches as fruit. A host of new characters will appear, one of them being a disembodied mouth, that must eat several of the fruit people and turn them into poop. A toilet will appear, and you will have to flush these poops and they will come out as gold poops. This isn't an easter egg or some sort of side activity, either. This is a main path objective that has to happen to progress. Wattam is full of these bizarre little tasks, each requiring little effort outside of trying to get a grasp on the thread that pulls all of this together into something cohesive, an effort that will probably leave you realizing what you should have realized earlier if hadn't already: this is a game for kids.
Wattam is about exploring everyday things and enjoying their presence, making associations, and telling a story about discovery and forgiveness. It's admirable, worthy of some leniency from people like me who are pretty obviously not the intended audience. But there are some things that are sort of puzzling about this little game. For starters, the game chugs. Framerate issues are continuous throughout, even in the early game when hardly anything is spawned into the world, and it only gets worse the farther you get into the game. The controls feel like they are from the PS2 era, where the triggers act as camera rotation and the right stick, inexplicably, tries to switch control between characters. There is, in all fairness, a shortcut to switching between characters by hitting right on the D-pad, a minor convenience considering the other choices in controls. The style does a lot to cover up the apparent low quality graphics, but there is a definite feeling that this game may not be properly finished. Wattam's apparent intended audience, again, warrants tolerance of some of these things, but they are notable and annoying regardless.
I'm not sure I liked Wattam much. It was charming in its own way, but hardly enjoyable. It is a Nick Jr. show after a joint. It is an interactive, colorful, somewhat confusing children's show. I can get behind this in theory, but I do wish I hadn't spent $20 on the thing riding on Takahashi's name. If anything is to blame, it is probably the marketing. The game makes no hesitations in what it is. And though I called it admirable before, I can't say I'd call it good.
5.0
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