PRITTO PRISONER

I came into this one expecting a cheap novelty act, the kind of party game that survives exactly one session before everyone agrees to go back to something with actual depth. Pritto Prisoner is not that. It is a 4v2 asymmetric multiplayer where four animal inmates work together to trigger prison-gate mechanisms by eating food, generating waste, and using that waste as both a trap-laying tool and a direct combat resource against the two robot guards trying to recapture them. The bodily-function hook is real, but it is a delivery system for a tighter loop than the presentation suggests. On the animal side, each of the twelve playable characters brings a distinct kit. The lion sword master can cut through robot pursuit paths, the elephant art-fraudster deploys decoys, and the scientist pig throws a blinding smokescreen. Picking the right animal for a stage matters, and so does coordinating with your three teammates, because the gate-opening conditions are objective-based and require collective effort, not just one player sprinting for the exit. On the robot side, you build your guard before each match by mixing upper and lower body parts from a modular pool. Stun Gun paired with Wheels gives you a fast, close-range shock unit. Lasso with Tank Treads turns you into a slower, pee-resistant brawler that can land long-distance takedowns. The Ver. 2.0 update added Punch and Hover as new upper-body options, expanding that build space further. Robots can also level up mid-match by collecting waste dropped by animals, which adds a resource-pressure dynamic that punishes robots who ignore the floor state. The nine current stages, including three added in the 2.0 update, each have their own mechanical wrinkle. The Beach stage runs waterways that teams must coordinate to flood in the correct sequence. The Sushi Bar has animals grabbing food off conveyor belts to keep the excretion economy moving. The Solitary Cell stage goes horror-themed with hidden rooms tucked into every cell block. Stage variety is real, not just cosmetic reskins. When animals do get caught, they land in the Nap Room and can attempt a sheep-counting minigame to earn an early wake-up, up to twice per match. It keeps captured players engaged rather than spectating a loss, though the 2.0 patch did add full spectator camera access as an alternative if you prefer to watch the chaos unfold. Where it falls short is population. Steam review count is low, and if matchmaking queues are thin in your region or timezone, you will feel it. The game supports cross-play between PC and Nintendo Switch platforms, which helps, but the playerbase has not hit the density where finding a full six-player public lobby is guaranteed at any hour. The DLC cosmetics launched alongside the base game, which rubbed some players the wrong way at launch, and that sentiment is fair given the small review pool. The in-game daily challenge system earns Pritto Coins for cosmetics, so the grind is there if you refuse to spend extra. Netcode performance is not something I can formally benchmark here, but cross-platform play with PC and console players sharing lobbies is a factor worth monitoring at launch. For a shooter specialist like me, this is the kind of game I pass to my squad when we want ten minutes of loud, chaotic coordination without the emotional investment of a ranked mode. The robot side in particular scratches a gear-building itch, even if the loadout depth does not approach something like Hunt Showdown. If you have three friends who commit, the match length keeps sessions tight and the role asymmetry stops it from getting stale quickly. Solo queue is a different, more frustrating experience. Fred, Scout Team