Pikuniku joins Crunchyroll Game Vault with its quirky puzzle adventure

• Pikuniku is now available via Crunchyroll Game Vault
• Physics-based puzzles and light narrative hide a darker undertone
• Local co-op and no ads or IAPs with membership access

Crunchyroll's Game Vault keeps raiding the indie backlog, and this month's pick is a good one. Pikuniku is now available on iOS and Android for Mega and Ultimate Fan members, and if it passed you by the first time, it's worth paying attention to now.

The setup sells itself short on purpose. You play as a small, red, vaguely blob-shaped thing. The world around you is bright, cheerful, and populated by locals with small problems that need solving. Nothing alarming. Except there's a conspiracy buried underneath all that cheerfulness, a revolution quietly building, and the pastel colour palette is working overtime to stop you noticing either.

The puzzles are physics-driven – kicking objects, nudging things into position, figuring out what interacts with what. None of it will have you stuck for hours, but there's enough going on that it never feels like you're just going through the motions. Short sessions work well here, though it has a habit of pulling you into one more level before you've realised what happened.

Local co-op is also in there, with dedicated cooperative levels built for it rather than just a tacked-on second player option. Good excuse to drag someone else in. As always with Game Vault titles, an active Crunchyroll membership is required to play. But once you're in, there are no ads or additional purchases to worry about.

On the card game side of things, our review of Card Crawl 2 just went up, and Jack gave it four out of five stars. It's the latest from Arnold Rauers, who's been making some of the best small card games on mobile for the better part of a decade. Worth a read if that's more your speed.

And if you're after more puzzle games to dig into, our list of the best puzzlers on iOS has plenty to keep you busy.