RATATA puts a co-op animal gang in debt to a mafia toad whose orders are the real puzzle

The physics co-op game has a simple contract with its players: the controls are slightly wrong on purpose, every object is heavier than it looks, and the fun lives in the argument that follows. Moving Out made a comedy of carrying a sofa through a doorway; Overcooked turned a kitchen into a shouting match. RATATA, the debut game from independent studio The Kingsdom, keeps that contract and adds a twist borrowed from crime cinema: the one giving the orders never quite says what she means.

The boss is a toad. She runs the mob in a city of animals, the player’s crew owes her money, and whatever she wants done, the crew does. The trouble is that she issues orders rather than instructions. “Bring me the thing,” she says, and the announcement happily leaves which thing as an exercise for the gang, preferably without asking her twice. In most co-op games the objective is the one thing everybody agrees on; here even that is up for debate.

Around that riddle sits a familiar but well-chosen loop, set in an ’80s criminal underworld populated entirely by animals. Up to four players draft a crew from a roster in which every creature has its own size, strength, speed, abilities and, pointedly, driver’s license status, so the animal that is perfect for one job can be a disaster on the next. Then comes the truck: pick the right one, load it, and deliver the cargo without breaking it, your friends or the vehicle. Jobs range from heists and deliveries to what the studio calls unhinged odd jobs, with guards to sneak past, traps to dodge and, in the game’s most quotable promise, crazy granny squirrels to outrun.

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The economy is where the crime-comedy premise earns its keep. Every payday is split, with most of the money going to the Boss and the rest back into the gang: new crew members, bigger wheels and a hideout that grows as the operation does. The debt shrinks very slowly, though The Kingsdom teases that the toad is not going to rule forever. When a job goes wrong, someone ends up in jail and the others have to bail them out, ideally still wearing the period outfits the game lets you dress the crew in.

The Kingsdom describes itself with one rule: different genres, different worlds, but always animals. Its own website still advertises a cozy adventure about three cats living in Istanbul, so a mob of furry crooks reads less like a pivot than the same fixation with a getaway truck attached. It is also unrelated to Ratatan, the Patapon spiritual successor from Ratata Arts.

RATATA is coming to PC via Steam, where it can already be wishlisted, and its announcement trailer debuts as an IGN exclusive. No release date has been given; the store page lists it as coming soon. It supports online play for up to four players, plus a solo option for when, in the studio’s words, nobody picks up the phone.

Whether the toad’s riddles stay funny across a whole campaign is a question for launch day. As an opening pitch, though, a co-op game in which the hardest job is working out what your boss actually wants is a sharper joke than most.

Tags: indie games, co-op games, RATATA, The Kingsdom

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