A fantastic little gem. It's easy to give small indy games a little bit of a free pass when comparing to AAA games or similar, or rather be less forgiving with AAA games. In this case though I can easily hoist this game above many AAA games I've played this year, judging solely on experience of the game without consideration of budget. It's simply better than many recent games with teams a hundred times bigger. I played it to completion, I didn't get frustrated and the story met the gameplay without either sacrificing for the other.

It might sound like hyperbole, but the reality is that I played a AAA game on Xbox Game Pass and was bored within 15 minutes and gave up. I clicked Donut County just randomly and played it to completion. The context for the two games being presented to me was as equals. I hadn't paid for either outright, so I had little investment in either and could just play to enjoy. It was a couple of hours where I didn't get impatient, roll my eyes, get frustrated at gameplay, or bugs or tedium. It was just a couple of hours of good fun.