Review: Smushi Come Home Is a Little Game With a Big Heart

Between the remaster of We Love Katamari and the imminent Pikmin 4, it’s a good time to be a little guy in video games. Joining that group is Smushi Come Home, another game about being a tiny person in a big world. It was casually released during the 2023 Wholesome Direct and if you need any game to define what wholesome means, it’s this.

You play as Smushi, a mushroom man living on an island with his family of other mushroom people. It’s all lovely and cozy until the fateful day when Smushi is captured by a large bird. Flown far away and dropped into the bird’s nest, Smushi heads out on a quest to get back to his family. What follows is an adventure platformer about exploring a cute world on the forest floor.

Screenshot by Siliconera

There’s not a whole lot of complexity to Smushi Come Home. At the start of the game, Smushi encounters a retired explorer who hands him some climbing hooks and a hang glider. These immediately become your main forms of traversal for the rest of the game. The climbing hooks allow Smushi to grip a wall for an extra jump, while the glider is similar to the glider from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Both tools can be upgraded at a later point, for higher climbing and longer gliding. There are also tools such as a mining tool and a Blade of Power, used for breaking rocks and cutting vines respectively.

These tools allow Smushi to explore each area of the forest to complete quests. This makes up much of the gameplay of Smushi Come Home – wander around, make new friends, do favors for them, and find ways to open a route to the next area. For instance, in the first area, the exit is blocked by a hungry lizard. He will only move when you’ve found him two blueberries, so this is your first major quest. Along the way you’ll restore some flower shrines, break some crystals using a pool ball, and use your climbing ability to help a bug complete his coin collection, to name just a few of your tasks.

It’s all a simple, laidback experience. There’s no combat and the puzzles mostly have straightforward solutions. You explore, you chat, and you soak in the relaxing atmosphere. It’s a premise that could easily have become tedious or limiting, but it manages to avoid this with immaculate vibes.

Screenshot by Siliconera

Smushi Come Home is a game full of irresistible charm. The world is a non-threatening place, where at worst there are some mild disagreements that Smushi has to come in and help with. Otherwise, most NPCs are friendly and chatty, and the dialogue has a dorky humor to it. For instance, a quest to rescue someone from a cave sees them screaming about how hard their predicament is, before revealing they’ve only been in there for 20 minutes.

Outside of NPC interactions, the game is cozy. The environments are bright and colorful, while making good use of every character being about an inch tall. Smushi’s equipment is all household objects – his mining tool is an Allen key and his Blade of Power is a sewing pin – and NPCs live in flower pots and hollowed out cuckoo clocks. There’s a lot of attention to detail in these environments that make them feel lived in.

The music adds to the game’s gentle vibe too, all acoustic guitars and flutes. None of it is particularly memorable, unfortunately, but it does create the perfect atmosphere as you’re wandering around the woods. I also have to mention the little noises that Smushi makes whenever he jumps, as they make him sound like a Pikmin. It’s adorable and appropriate because of how many items you’ll be carting around from one place to another.

Screenshot by Siliconera

What really surprised me about Smushi Come Home was how many heartfelt messages were tucked away inside it. Certainly more than I expected from a silly little game about a mushroom man. One character espousing a cynical worldview leads Smushi to deliver a monologue about the value of being nice. Smushi helps a capybara family deal with their disputes by reminding them of the importance of respecting each other’s differences. One NPC gives Smushi a light lesson in recognizing what’s important in life and appreciating what you have.

These conversations take what could be a simple, almost throwaway game and make it into something more meaningful. They’re not complex messages, but the charm of this game’s writing had me, a grown man, softly agreeing with a mushroom that maybe we do all need to be a little braver.

Screenshot by Siliconera

Despite all this charm and loveliness, however, Smushi Come Home is an exceptionally short experience. I completed the game in a little over three hours despite wanting to take my time with it. It also doesn’t have a lot of replay value, as there aren’t many challenges, side quests or branching paths to go back and delve into. Side content is there, but it mostly amounts to short fetch quests that mainly just give Smushi a new hat. This will no doubt be a sticking point for some, especially with the game being $20. It shouldn’t be, because it’s three hours well spent, but it’s understandable that some players may want more to play with.

Smushi Come Home is not going to be a game for everyone. While it does nail the cozy, wholesome mood it’s going for, the low stakes and limited challenge may put some people off. The humor may also be an acquired taste. If you’re looking for a tough or expansive experience, you are not getting it here.

However, if you are looking for a short, gentle and surprisingly thoughtful game to relax you for a few hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon, this is a superb choice. Smushi Come Home is a charming little adventure with a big heart that sadly may be over a little too soon.

Smushi Come Home is available now for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.