When looking at the history of silly video games, it’s impossible to overlook the Katamari series. The concept of rolling up objects until you end up with a ball the size of a planet is ridiculous enough already, but when you combine this with weird and wonderful characters like the King of all Cosmos it’s about as outlandish as a video game can get. It isn’t the only Keita Takahashi creation that’s bizarre though, with other titles like Noby Noby Boy that retained that signature charm and even more signature weirdness. To a T continues this legacy, and has made me a happier person for the last week.
The protagonist of To a T is Teen, a middle school student with a particularly unusual condition. They were born stuck in a T pose, and are unable to move their arms from being stuck out straight. As you can imagine this causes some issues with daily tasks, but they try their best to live their best life regardless. They’re helped by a delightful dog that you can dress in a bowler hat too, because of course you can. As silly as this all sounds it’s also a pretty heart-warming story, full of lovely characters and catchy songs.
The game is broken up into episodes, which generally feature something Teen will have to overcome. In the first of these they’re having a rough time at school due to some nasty bullies, and almost skip the day because of it. Before long though this leads them to learn they have an unexpected power. By spinning, Teen can fly through the air like a human helicopter, and learning about this hidden ability will change their life forever.
As exciting as this is, you’ll spend most of the story portions of the game helping Teen with more grounded day to day life. This includes rotating your arms to get through doors, using an extra long spoon to eat breakfast, and performing a science experiment by tipping test tubes at unusual angles. Despite how silly a lot of this is, the situation is never played out for laughs. Teen and their family have found some ingenious ways of ensuring the best life possible for this kid, be it using an upwards pointing tap to wash their face or getting the pup to dispense toothpaste.
Most of these tasks require you to manually move parts of the body, with a different stick and shoulder buttons assigned to each side of Teen. This isn’t frustrating physics nonsense though, and is always pretty easy to manage. Other episodes of the game might require more from you, like when you have to do some Simon Says style dancing in PE class. There’s never any punishment for doing things wrong though, you’re just experiencing the life of Teen.
Above all else it’s the charm of To a T that makes it truly special. Characters like Giraffe (who is a literal giraffe that serves sandwiches) are memorable and endearing, and I was always compelled to progress just to see more of them. Each episode of To a T starts and ends with a song too, which never ceases to delight. The catchy theme song “You are the Perfect Shape” is one of the greatest gaming tracks of all time, and giraffe’s more laid back ballad about waking up to bake bread is just as much of a banger.
Initially it seems like To a T will be a strictly narrative experience, but there’s actually a whole open world element to the game too. In this you’ll be able to explore the town you’ve spent the game in freely, collecting coins on the ground or in the air and chatting to characters. The money you find can be spent on new outfits for Teen, to ensure they look mighty stylish while T posing. Getting to just vibe in this world and collect coins is much more entertaining than it has any right to be, and is a nice change of pace from the narrative.
To a T is a delightful game that wears its silliness on its sleeve, but not everyone will get along with it. I have to admit the gameplay side of this experience is fairly limited, so don’t go in expecting to be challenged by the mini games or thrilled when navigating the world. Some of the tasks you’re given are a bit of a slog too, like brushing your teeth when each bit of food takes multiple scrubs to dislodge. This led to me skipping the odd morning of brushing, which is a bad habit to get into.
To a T may seem like a totally daft video game, but it actually has a lot of heart. The endearing characters and story of adversity is delightful, and the game never punches down and mocks the main character and their unusual disability. The gameplay is surprisingly compelling too, especially exploring the world for coins to spend on new shoes. To a T is a game that made me smile every time I played it, and it was absolutely the perfect shape for my tastes.
