Not enough people are talking about KeyWe, the co-op game by Stonewheat & Sons where you and a friend play as Jeff and Debra, two kiwi birds who get jobs at a small mail room in the Australian outback. The game was released on August 31 for Switch, PlayStation and PC (an Xbox release is coming soon), and since then it’s mostly flown under the radar. That’s a huge oversight, because KeyWe is a delightful puzzler that lets you dress up tiny birds in hats and make them play the tuba.
The concept of KeyWe is simple: you and a friend each take control of a kiwi and have to work together to sort incoming mail, send out packages, staff the front counter and more. There are four main mini-games, each with its own kind of puzzle: the Telegraph Desk, where you have to navigate a giant keyboard to type outgoing messages; the Transcription Room, where you have to collect word fragments to spell out messages; the Shipping Floor, where you organise packages based on location, weight and delivery instructions; and the Dropoff Depot, where you dabble in customer service collecting mail and processing packages. After that, KeyWe keeps things interesting by throwing extra challenges and bizarre twists at you with each new mini-game. And because you’re two tiny kiwis, you complete each puzzle by jumping on buttons, picking up letters with your beak and squawking into microphones. It’s all incredibly wholesome.
With the points you earn by completing mini-games, you can buy new accessories, hats, skins, feather patterns and backpacks. In my game, Jeff is sporting yellow feathers and a set of headphones and Debra is wearing aviators and a beanie, although I’m saving up to buy the radio operator’s backpack that has a teeny satellite dish on it. You can also unlock special outfits by finding collectables and completing challenge game modes.
The challenges are a mix of new puzzles and chaotic twists on the regular game modes. The first three you’ll unlock include a mini-game that challenges you to play musical notes at the right time, with Jeff and Debra each jumping between the drums, bells and a tuba. In another you’re racing along a bench trying to feed the cassowaries who deliver the mail room’s letters.
KeyWe is simple to learn and hard to master as each mini-game becomes increasingly frantic. It’s described as a cute and chaotic postal puzzler, and that’s exactly what you get for a few hours of adorable and entertaining gameplay — plus little kiwi hats.
