Were you the “cool kid” in school? Sitting and chatting to the others after last Friday’s “party” at someone’s house whose parents were chill with booze, kids, and the hottest new top 40 songs on repeat?
Yeah, me neither…
But you heard about it. And Suzie and Brad!? Oh, you heard about them! Gossip travels fast, which Hush Hush High expands into with a quirky, colourful, funny, and stylized stealth game.
It’s an indie title with many exciting ideas and mechanics that combine to create a small but entertaining package.
Hush Hush High’s Simple But Engaging Set Up
We’ve all been there in some form or another. Whether you wanted to be a part of it or not (especially in high school): the gossip train! Hush Hush High puts you in the shoes of Mochi, the school’s resident gossiper who “can’t keep her mouth shut,” or so the developers say.
The setup is simple: You head to school on Monday and work through the week as your friends tell you stories everyone needs to know about in the morning. From there, it’s off to school as you walk the halls, attend class, and sign up for sports and other extracurriculars. The life of a high schooler is in full effect!
It’s all presented in a super colourful and pixelated art style that works for the game’s tone. Hush Hush High wears anime inspirations on its sleeve and for the better. It’s never afraid to explore the wacky side of being in high school, and I thoroughly appreciated it.
Tapping Into the High School Experience
The core gameplay begins as Mochi arrives at school. As you walk from place to place, Mochi is just dying to gossip with random people around her. No matter what or who she wants to talk about, it’s your job as the player to stop it from happening.
I found this an exciting and subtle way to introduce the stealth-like mechanic. Navigating high school halls is a chore no matter who you are, but here it’s especially tricky as Mochi is eager to stop and chat with nearly anyone who will listen to her super-important, definitely-true information about a class influencer.
To avoid confrontations, you’ll move around bookshelves, desks, other students, the cafeteria, and more. But if you do trigger the chat, a mini-game occupies much of what High School High offers. It’s a fast button-press game where you’ll try to keep Mochi within a green zone for her to hold back the gossip.
This aspect of the game is hit-and-miss for me. The idea works, but in execution, it loses its lustre quite quickly. I enjoy an old-school game mechanic from time to time, but I did find I was doing it a little too often. It works, but in moderation.
While you do this, you’re trying to manage a meter on the screen that tells you just how successful your attempts to keep Mochi’s mouth shut indeed are. Once one piece of gossip is let out, you have to manage this “resource” and ensure it doesn’t drain before the end of the day.
To do this, you can purchase drinks that will slow down the spread of the gossip. This will let you get from place to place without things getting too out of hand. And that’s the key here: there is a fail state. If the gossip runs too rampant, you’ll need to start the day from the beginning.
This can be a little frustrating at times when I happen to fail late in the day. Hush Hush High is fun, don’t get me wrong, but repeating the same tasks three times over isn’t all that great.
Other mini-games pop up from time to time. These short bursts of gameplay liven things up during your day of stealth and gossip. Early on (shown above), you may run into The Influencer as you’ll have to confront them and your potential involvement in the school’s latest scandal.
These are brief, and I only encountered them a few times, but they were a lot of fun and brought some new elements to the game.
Verdict
Hush Hush High is here to have a good time! The concept and the characters, including Mochi herself, are a little quirky and a lot of fun.
Personality can go a long way with titles like this. Although the core mechanics may be overly familiar to most gamers, the way they’re implemented makes up for it. If you’re looking for a light-hearted approach to stealth and a colourful game with a wacky premise, look no further!
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PC/Steam Deck
