Berry Bury Berry is the kind of game that sounds like a joke until several hours have disappeared and there is suddenly a very serious amount of virtual money sitting in the bank. Developed by Get(Color) Games, this peculiar first-person incremental game revolves around a remarkably simple premise: grow fruit, throw it into a mysterious hole and use the resulting cash to make the whole operation bigger and more profitable. What initially feels like a deliberately silly novelty gradually develops into a surprisingly elaborate progression system, with a strange garden to explore and a darker story lurking underneath its cheerful exterior. It is not a game that will appeal to everyone, particularly those who have little patience for repetition, but there is considerably more substance here than the premise initially suggests.
The early hours are all about establishing the basic routine. Fruit is grown, picked and physically tossed into the hole, with each successful delivery generating money that can be reinvested into better production. The first few upgrades are deliberately modest, but the progression soon branches out into more useful tools, automated collection, a vacuum for handling fruit, longer days and increasingly valuable crops. Berry Buddies add another layer to the process, producing fruit themselves and eventually being upgraded to generate higher-value varieties. What works particularly well is how these systems feed into one another: money improves production, improved production generates more money, while stars and other rewards allow the garden’s inhabitants to become more efficient. There is a satisfying sense of watching a tiny backyard operation gradually turn into an absurdly productive machine.
The first-person perspective also gives the incremental mechanics more physicality than they would normally have. Throwing a berry is an actual interaction rather than simply selecting an icon from a menu, and the slightly unpredictable physics mean fruit can bounce, roll or miss its intended destination. That can be amusing when the garden is small, although it can also become a little cumbersome once there is fruit everywhere. The controls are generally straightforward because the game’s interaction vocabulary is uncomplicated: pick things up, throw them, move around, operate tools and manage upgrades. The growing hole itself can eventually be moved around the garden, which turns it from a passive target into another tool for collecting resources and uncovering the environment. There is an occasional sense that the incremental systems are dictating progress more than player skill, but the tactile approach nevertheless does a good job of preventing the opening stages from feeling like a conventional idle game.
That progression is at its best when Berry Bury Berry starts opening up the garden itself. Breaking through walls reveals new spaces, objects and secrets, while the hole becomes increasingly capable of swallowing increasingly ridiculous things. Puzzles, cassette recordings and environmental discoveries provide a reason to wander away from the production cycle, and multiple endings give the otherwise repetitive progression a destination. The problem is that the balance between these elements is not always convincing. Some upgrades are less intuitive than they should be, certain progression points require a fair amount of patience, and eventually the incremental side can become a grind rather than a source of constant excitement. Once the more interesting exploratory elements have been exhausted, the player can be left wondering exactly what the next few million coins are supposed to achieve.
The narrative is therefore both one of Berry Bury Berry’s biggest strengths and one of its missed opportunities. There is something genuinely intriguing about the contrast between a brightly colored garden, cheerful berry characters and a hole that becomes increasingly difficult to regard as merely a gameplay mechanic. The story is mostly discovered rather than presented directly, with cassette recordings, environmental details and puzzles gradually adding context to the bizarre situation. The underlying themes surrounding work, accumulation and endlessly feeding something that never seems satisfied give the otherwise ridiculous gameplay loop an unexpected thematic edge. Unfortunately, the game sometimes relies too heavily on familiar mascot-horror conventions, and some of its revelations can feel predictable or deliberately vague rather than genuinely mysterious. Those willing to investigate will get considerably more from the narrative, but the storytelling does not always provide enough incentive to push through its less engaging stretches.
The horror itself is similarly understated. Berry Bury Berry is far more interested in creating an uneasy contrast than in delivering conventional scares, and that is probably the right choice for a game whose primary activity involves throwing increasingly valuable fruit into a hole. The shift from the bright daytime garden to the darkness of night is effective, while the strange behaviour of the environment and the information uncovered through exploration give the setting an increasingly uncomfortable character. At the same time, anyone expecting a sustained horror experience may find the darker material too restrained. The game occasionally hints at something much more disturbing than it ultimately delivers, and the threat never quite develops into the kind of menace that could match the more interesting ideas behind it.
Visually, however, that tonal contrast works very well. Berry Bury Berry uses chunky, colorful designs and a deliberately artificial-looking garden to make everything feel cheerful and slightly toy-like. The fruit has a pleasing physical presence, the little berry characters bring some personality to the increasingly busy environment, and even mundane objects are given expressive details that fit the game’s surreal presentation. The VHS-inspired presentation also helps establish a connection between the innocent surface and the unsettling material underneath it. Audio plays a similarly supportive role, with suitably bouncy effects accompanying the fruit and tools while the garden’s atmosphere becomes quieter and more ominous as night falls. The interactive music setup and retro presentation fit the game’s strange personality particularly well, even if neither the soundtrack nor the voice work is likely to linger in the memory on its own.
Ultimately, Berry Bury Berry works because it understands that an incremental game needs more than numbers going up if it wants to hold attention for several hours. The core loop is repetitive by design, and there are certainly moments where the grinding and increasingly expensive upgrades expose the limitations of the formula. The narrative also doesn’t quite fulfil the potential of its unsettling premise, while the mixture of incremental progression, exploration and horror occasionally feels like three ideas competing for attention rather than one completely unified concept. Yet the sheer oddness of the package gives it an identity that most incremental games simply do not have. Watching a tiny garden develop into a ridiculous fruit-producing operation, moving a giant hole around the environment and gradually uncovering why this place exists is compelling in a way that the basic premise has no right to be.
Berry Bury Berry is therefore an easy game to underestimate. It is not a particularly deep incremental game, nor is it especially frightening, and its later progression can certainly test patience. What it does provide is a compact, tactile and consistently strange experience that keeps finding new ways to make the central act of throwing things into a hole more elaborate. The multiple endings, hidden story elements and reset-based progression also give the experience more longevity than its basic premise suggests. We found the core loop difficult to dismiss once the upgrade systems began clicking into place, even if the game occasionally makes that progression feel more laborious than rewarding. For players who enjoy incremental mechanics and don’t mind doing a lot of very silly virtual gardening, Berry Bury Berry is well worth taking a look at.
Score: 7.5/10