Poppy Playtime

Poppy Playtime found a very effective formula: take toys designed to be hugged, make them enormous, and put them in a factory where everyone stopped clocking in ten years ago. Huggy Wuggy has the proportions of a plush and the reach of something that can cross a corridor in one step.

The GrabPack is what makes it more than a chase game. Two extendable hands on wires let you pull levers across a room, carry power between circuits, and solve the environmental puzzles that fill the space between scares. It gives you something to do with your hands while you're being hunted, which paradoxically makes the hunting worse.

The lore is doled out through tapes and scattered documents in a way that turned the game into a community project. Playtime Co. is hiding something, obviously, and working out what has kept theorists busy across every chapter.

Kissy Missy's pink counterpart status and Mommy Long Legs's stretching are both good examples of the series' core trick: exaggerate a toy just enough and it stops being cute.

This collection covers the factory's residents. Install one if you like your desktop slightly menacing.