After pounding my way through Donkey Kong Bananza earlier this month, I declared that 2025 was a “big year for hole.” DK’s adventure was the third game I’d played this year (fourth actually, as I’d forgotten Netease’s Rusty Rabbit at the time) that took the childlike joy of digging in a sandbox and turned it into a creative gameplay hook. Today, that trend goes another layer deeper thanks to the well-timed Mashina.
Following up on last year’s striking Judero, Mashina is a new game from Talha and Jack Co. that continues the studio’s experiments with stop-motion animation. It stars an egg-shaped robot who finds herself on a mission to save her world by gathering minerals. How does she accomplish that? By digging holes, of course. While it’s a proudly lo-fi project that’s leagues apart from Nintendo’s latest in scope, Mashina is a chill chaser I needed after weeks of Donkey Kong Bananza’s loud and proud environmental destruction.
Structurally, Mashina’s closest parallel is Steamworld Dig. My job is to pop into a 2D mine and start digging with my drill in search of minerals. I fit as much as I can into my puzzle-like inventory, deposit them back at the surface, and earn skill points that help me move and dig more efficiently. At the same time, I’m also completing quests for some friendly robots above ground that reward me with more powerful drills and gadgets like teleporters. It’s the same progression hook that made A Game About Digging a Hole such a small hit earlier this year, but delivered by way of endearing bots.
There’s an inherent satisfaction to digging here as I build a system of interweaving tunnels underground, but a lot of rough edges to work around. I struggled with a clumsy building system that had me crafting mineral-transporting conveyor belts, and the general hook wore thin once I entered a grind-heavy third act, but Mashina isn’t ashamed of its imperfections. You can feel it in the lumpy landscapes, the primitive stop-motion cutscenes, the cast of misshapen misfits that looked like they stepped out of a Primus album cover. Even when it can all feel a little sloppy to play, it’s a match for the surreal quality of its patchwork visuals.
That’s the thing about claymation. What makes it so special as a form of animation is that you’re always aware of the human touches that make it possible. You can see the way a hand squeezed and prodded life into a hunk of clay. Mashina is a game defined by thumbprints, one that never lets you forget the scrappy work that went into its creation.
You could call it blue collar Bananza in that way. The moments that stuck with me most during my playthrough were when I was just casually digging around to the sound of a staticky radio station pumping out hypnotic grooves between DJs talking about the state of the poisoned world in soothing tones. I felt like a trucker driving across the country at 3 a.m., just listening to whatever broadcast the FM radio could pick up deep down the highway to stay awake. While Mashina’s thin story lacks the emotional resonance of Judero, it’s still occasionally transcendent in its own small ways. It’s a game for the night shift heroes toiling into the twilight hours just to make sure the world is still moving when everyone else wakes up.
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