KEMCO might be known for releasing JRPGs in shocking amounts, but they do publish or develop a few other games in other genres every now and then. One of these games was Mom Hid My Game! a bizarre puzzle minigame collection originally released for mobile phones in 2016 by hap Inc. KEMCO had collaborated  with hap Inc. to port the game to 3DS, PS4, and Switch later on. It was simple, but downright absurdist. In a way that only Japanese games can pull off, like the Katamari Damacy franchise for example. Given its simplicity and surprise success overseas, it was but a matter of time for Kemco and hap inc. to give Mom Hid My Game! 2 the same porting treatment as well.

Mom Hid My Game! 2 is just like its predecessor. It’s a bunch of puzzle minigames in which you, a gaming-obsessed kid, need to find your beloved portable console after your mom decided to hide it. Presumably because you can’t stop playing it for a damn second.

At first, things are pretty straightforward. Maybe your mom hid your game underneath the couch or inside a drawer. Things get a bit more complicated with each new puzzle, and soon enough they start getting a bit more absurd, eventually reaching the point of ridiculousness. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the good kind of ridiculous: the kind where a giraffe will eventually show up by your window. Or having a elephant help you out in order to distract your sister for long enough so you can sneak by her desk drawer and grab your beloved portable. These examples are pretty mild compared to some of the stuff that shows up later on, but those are best experienced without being spoiled.

This is one of the two main reasons you’ll want to play Mom Hid My Game! 2: getting to experience that kinda of creative lunacy that was all the rage back in the PS1 era of gaming. The other main reason is getting caught by your mom when doing something wrong in each level. The game actually encourages you to do so, eventually giving you a PSN gold trophy if you unlock all of the failure sequences.

You can already imagine that this game is quite short. You can beat all fifty puzzles in about an hour and a half, extending the total playtime to maybe two hours if you decide to actively fail each level in order to get that additional mom-related trophy. It’s also clearly meant to be played on a system with a touchscreen, since the entire gameplay is cursor based, but that doesn’t mean that the controls are bad. On the contrary, the cursor moves at an appropriate speed, and the developers did include shortcuts which can be accessed by pressing a few of the PS4’s face buttons. It might feel a bit weird, but it doesn’t mean it’s cumbersome.

Finally, the game looks and sounds identical to its predecessors, featuring one eternally looping tune that, while catchy, gets severely tiresome after a while. You can unlock a few extra songs in the game, however, although they’re meant to be heard outside of the main puzzle-solving mode. The overall visuals are stupidly simple, with a very repetitive background, but the sheer ridiculousness of its art style is way too charming to be mad at.

Mom Hid My Game! 2 might be short and a bit too simplistic at times, but this charming little piece of weirdness is still a fun pastime for a few hours. Especially if you miss the absurdist experimental games that would come out of Japan a few decades ago. It’s entertaining, occasionally smart with its puzzle designs, and most important, very funny. 

 

Graphics: 6.0 The blue backgrounds are tiresome and repetitive, but the overall “cheap” art style, coupled with the ridiculousness that the game throws at you with every new level, is downright charming.	Gameplay: 7.0 Simple microgames that are easy to solve with controls that are intuitive enough, although you can clearly see this was meant for a system with a touchscreen.
Sound: 5.5 The chiptune soundtrack is undeniably catchy, but dude, does it get repetitive after a while.	Fun Factor: 7.5 There is more to this game than meets the eye. Sure, it’s simple and short, but it’s entertaining, occasionally smart, and most importantly, incredibly absurd, in a way that only Japanese games can pull off.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Mom Hid My Game! 2 is available now on PS4 and Switch.

Reviewed on PS4

A copy of Mom Hid My Game! 2 was provided by the publisher.