[Review] KeyWe - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: Stonewheat & Sons
Published By: Sold-Out Software
Categories: Puzzle, Co-Op
Release Date: 08.31.21

What kind of madman makes birds do their work for them? Well, the ones inside of the game KeyWe. See, you control Jeff and Debra, they work for the postal service. I almost feel like they’re doing all the hard work…

So KeyWe is a co-op puzzle game. We’ve already touched on the fact you control two birds, but the real way to play the game is with another person. Together, you’ll type, sort, er…rescue? the mail. This game is perfectly playable alone. It might come off as overwhelming to an extent alone, or a task alone, but it’s not one of those co-op games that’s practically unplayable alone. That said, this is a silly game, there’s no way to describe it, this is the perfect game for co-op to begin with.

See, just finding letters and words for transcribing or for telegraph is just part of the job. If we’re gonna get these out, we need to give them to that big bird. They’re kinda picky though. They have the mail, they have the mail in a bag, but you gotta buckle that bag on the bird, and they’re not going to cooperate unless you give ’em a snack. If you skipped a tutorial…like I did initially because I thought I was big, you’d probably not realize that. I like that this isn’t just a searching game, there’s little tasks to do too.

We’re at work, one day at a time. Each day is a different job to do. I mentioned working the Telegraph, and sending some letters. Those are easy enough, Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is gonna be in the shipping room. These are bigger packages, they have bigger responsibilities too. Find out where they go, their shipping code, north of south, is it heavy or perishable? then assemble those crates. Jeeze, I clock out after eight or nine hours to go home to avoid this kinda stuff. Though with a friend, this becomes really fun.

Day four is for sorting. This just makes sure you know which goes where. To who. This one for me was the easiest to manage by myself. Hey, I really like these four day work weeks. But we’re gonna start again next week with more work. These flies are really enjoying the glue we use! Get rid of them! Hey this weather is really messing with the job! These are what really made me go more towards playing with a friend.

The better you do, the more stamps you receive. You can trade these stamps in to dress up in lots of silly outfits. You can even get more if you work overtime. Can you believe the nerve of these people asking me to come to work on my day off? It might be worth it though, it’s always nice to have some extra cash. If you can track down some hidden collectables, you can get even more outfits. Though I can say for sure, I didn’t see any of these initially. If you want, you can pay stamps for hints.

I really liked KeyWe. I was super pleased to see that for a co-op focused game like this it also has online play. Especially in the current time we live in, it’d be insane not to have that. As much as I enjoyed the game though, I cannot really recommend the game if you don’t ever play games with friends or online. If you do though, have at it, you’re in for a fun, funny time.