Welcome to the weirdest game I’ve played so far in 2025 – This is to a T… Hit the music. I have not been able to get “You are the Perfect Shape” out of my head ever since it earwormed its way inside. I’ve also had to a T stuck in my head right alongside it, this time because… I’m still trying to figure out what exactly I just played.
If you know anything about the dev team behind to a T, it might make a little more sense. Uvula is a team co founded by Keita Takahashi, known as the creator of the Katamari franchise. Now Takahashi is back with to a T, a game about, the daily struggles of Teen who’s stuck in a T pose for unknown reasons, and their pet dog. Except that’s not at all what this game is about. That’s how it starts, and then it gets weird… And then it gets WEIRD.
I can’t, and won’t talk about that part of the game because it would be heavily in to spoiler territory, so instead let’s wind it back. to A T plays out over 8 episodes, each one isn’t very long, at most about 45 minutes, and each of them is bookended by earworm songs. The first few start the same way, greeted by Teen and given a rough recap and update on the days plan. It’s a Saturday morning cartoon in game form. You take control of Teen as they get dressed, go to the bathroom, have breakfast, wash out eye boogers, and brush their teeth. Each of these are their own mini-game and highlights the little struggles of being someone with a disability. Except it doesn’t. It shows ingenuity, creativity, and understanding. As
someone with a disability, it might be shocking to hear but, most of us don’t think about it on a daily basis.
Teen was born in a T pose (I have questions about that), so to see that they’ve already figured out how to approach daily tasks in a way that fits them. The modified bathroom tap to help them use the sink. Longer spoon and toothbrush at home. Even the adapted pencil at school, all made me smile. They make sense for Teen. The one that pleased me the most was the animation of closing a door with their foot. Everyone does it, it might not stand out, but as someone who has a disability that affects their arms and hands, it’s a more common occurrence to use my feet when I can to help out. Seeing that reflected in a game showed an understanding.
During the intro for each episode, there’s a line in the song that says ‘The little things are hard for me’, people always think it’s going to be the big stuff in life that ends up causing an issue. Honestly, the small stuff can be more annoying. Going on holiday, or a theme park? No issue. If I ever drop my credit card on a flat surface however, that’s half my day gone trying to pick it back up unless I have a piece of paper handy.
There’s no more striking moment in the game than during the first episode, after Teen has gone through their routine and ran around the house, it’s time for school. The mood drops. Teen doesn’t want to go to school as they’re going to get bullied. You’re no longer a happy energetic teen. The pace slows, the music changes. That felt real. It’s something that I’m glad was in the game, it shows how that can affect you and again it shows care and understanding from the developers.
It would have been easy to make a game centred around the joke of “oh ho, main character can’t bend arms. What wacky hijinks will they get in to.” That’s not this. To a T ends up taking what could have been a one note joke and makes something more out of it. Sure that thing ends up being weird but what more would you expect when Keita Takahashi is involved. If they had, we would have ended up with another run of the mill game. Instead we end up with something that’s as unique as Teen is and tries to say something about it along the way.
The mood and pace of the game of course picks up after that initial episode and we’re back to the weird wacky world you’d expect from the creator of Katamari. At one point while playing my partner asked if what we were seeing was in the game is Teen’s perspective of it, as it could easily be the world seen through the filter of a childlike imagination because the world we’re seeing…. Is insane.
The world is colourful, charming, and filled with oddball characters you would expect to see in any Saturday morning cartoon. All of this works to build a story that tries to stay entertaining, while showing a slice of the “day in the life of” style for Teen. The problem when you try to approach replicating that episodic style in the form of a game is that it can end up feeling repetitive in places. You can skip Teen’s morning routine if you wish, which will have the interesting side effect of every cutscene you have that day, Teen will have eye gunk.
Sleep dust is the least of the problems with to a T. The biggest and most frustrating throughout the experience is the camera. Going for the old style locked in place cinematic camera can cause more than a small amount of annoyance as things block your view. It can also end up making it hard to collect the myriad of coins scattered throughout the town when the camera tries to tell you to go another way by blurring the view. Towards the later parts of the game, if you’re using auto-scrolling on the conversations you might also end up having a few lines skim past too fast for you to read, which can be a bit odd given the pacing of the rest of the text.
All of this builds up to create an experience that ends up… Confusing. While writing this a friend joked with my that I should have the review score flick between two different numbers because I honestly couldn’t work out where I was going to place it. It’s endearing, it’s rough around the edges, but the rough is… subjectional? You can avoid the optional tedium of the start of each day. You can skip the earworm songs if you don’t like them, and just get on with the story which is only 8 episodes long. Around the halfway mark the daily routine shifts anyway. The camera can shift from being infuriating to not as big an issue depending on how much free roaming you’re doing. Those spikey edges are always there, and you can try to limit your interaction with them. It doesn’t make them less annoying when they do pop up however.
to a T costs around £20, or $20. During our 6 hour playthrough we unlocked 17 of the 33 achievements. Some of which are tied to minigames, including one during the credits, while others require things like obtaining all 535 clothing items. None of these are hard, they’re just time consuming. Oh and the game is also on Game Pass, if that’s your kind of thing.
There’s something charming about to a T. Teen is a strong main character. Their joy at life, and the struggles they deal with on display. Showcasing a message about being true to oneself. Embracing what makes us, us, and just enjoying every moment with your friends. It’s refreshingly soft and colourful, even if camera frustrations and tedious routines try to raise friction during that experience.
to a T is filled with everything you would expect to find in a Saturday morning cartoon. At times it feels aimed at a younger audience for that reason. Even if at others things get so weird you end up feeling like you’re watching an episode of Bluey while high on cough syrup. Disability. Friendship. Family. Being unique, the spirit of adventure are all talking points in to a T. The most important message though, is sung about from start to finish… You are the perfect shape.
