LET’S PLAY

Games for Nongamers

Cute prizes, colorful fruit, and compact crowds.

Have you ever met a talking claw machine? Guided a sentient avocado around a lab? Directed dozens of tiny people to take a leap of faith? Dive into this trio of charming, simple games and add these awesomely unusual experiences to your virtual résumé.

A real pick-me-up

You never know what adorable toy you’ll grab in Clawberta.

‣ You probably know how tricky it can be to snag a prize in those arcade claw machines. But in Clawberta, dozens upon dozens of capsule toys are yours for the taking. And they’re all adorable.

Using a virtual joystick, maneuver the sassy Clawberta to pluck gachapon from a pile. What’s inside? A cat-shaped calculator, or perhaps a dancing dinosaur. The self-proclaimed queen of the arcade has an insatiable appetite for toys, so collect as many as you can.

Unlike with real claw machines, it’s supremely simple to amass a huge pile of heart-meltingly cute tchotchkes. And with new machines to unlock, there’s always another prize on the horizon.

Holy guacamole!

It’s hard not to fall for a face like that.

‣ Heroes come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. In this case: oblong, small, and avocado green.

Avo blends live-action footage with digital creatures in an astonishing way, telling the tale of a scientist named Billie and her charming creation, a sentient avocado. Across eight episodes, Avo solves problems in Billie’s lab, dodges sinister drones, and experiments with teleportation portals.

Guiding Avo is easy—draw a line across any surface in his photorealistic world and he’ll waddle along it. He moves so seamlessly through his environment, it feels like some sort of big-budget Hollywood wizardry. Finish his epic quest? Invite Avo into your own home with the game’s augmented reality feature.

Monochromatic marvel

KIDS makes faceless figures endlessly fascinating.

‣ Can a game be a work of art? Can a work of art be a game? Yes and yes. Just try KIDS.

Part of an interactive art project that includes a museum installation and a short film, KIDS invites you to explore a black-and-white world made up of small, faceless people. Experiment with tapping and sliding your finger around the screen as the kids swim through starry voids, leap into holes, and slide through tubes.

It’s thoughtfully symbolic, touching on themes like group psychology and individuality. Pretty provocative stuff for a game—which is exactly what makes it so special.