KeyWe - First look - Find the Strawberry

Run, jump and butt-slam your way around in KeyWe to get the mail out to the people (or maybe other kiwis?). Help out Jeff and Debra as they jump, dash and peck their way through the post office as they transcribe telegrams, send letters and parcels, and all sorts of other post officey things.

KeyWe is a couch co-op game but can be played through Steam Remote Play if you want to play it with online friends. It works well as a co-op game and is far less chaotic than something like Overcooked. At least in the demo. The trailer shows more complexity as the levels progress, like having to play in the dark.

There are two levels in the demo, one that involves receiving telegrams, and the other transcribing and sending the telegrams. Receiving telegrams has you running around and jumping onto lettered keys that are spread over the desk. As the levels become more complicated, the letters start to move or change locations, not the most efficient way to run a mail service, that’s for sure. It can be challenging to run a mail service with no hands, but Jeff and Debra have that under control. When transcribing letters, you need to run to components of words, pick them up with your butt and stick them to the message. All in a days work as a member of the Bungalow Basin postal service.

The co-op component comes into the game by one kiwi having to press shift while the other kiwi presses the letter to get an uppercase letter. In another level, one kiwi distracts the Cassowary Couriers while the other puts the message in their mailbag. I never found out what happens if you don’t distract the cassowary, but that’s probably for the best! At the end of each message, both kiwis need to complete an action together. This can be quite difficult, especially when playing remotely, as it needs to be synchronised. We ended up doing a 3, 2, 1 countdown just to press things at the same time.

KeyWe looks great! The levels are well made, and the kiwis are very cute. There are also cosmetic upgrades you can buy by earning stamps, which allow you to change the look of your kiwi. The puffin skin was a particular winner in our game.

KeyWe looks like it’ll be an excellent co-op game, and I can’t wait until 2021 to give the full game a try!