Scritchy Scratchy Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
The humble scratchie… a staple in last-minute birthday cards and an impulse buy when you’ve got a couple of loose coins burning a hole in your pocket here in Australia. There’s nothing quite like that brief moment when you see two matching numbers, your heart starts racing, and you think you’ve finally struck it rich… only for the third number to dash your dreams moments later. But what if I told you there was a game where you could scratch your life away… quite literally, until you win it all? That game is Scritchy Scratchy, an incremental clicker with roguelite elements that tasks you with going big, or going home. But does it hit the jackpot, or is it a complete bust? What’s It Like? Grab a 10-cent piece, start scratching, and may luck be in the air tonight as we review Scritchy Scratchy for Nintendo Switch 2.
Scritchy Scratchy starts off simple enough. You begin by washing some dishes and earning a few dollars before a mysterious figure calls you on the phone, offering you a catalogue of scratchies. You start small with $10 tickets, manually scratching away and slowly building up your funds. That money can then be spent on more scratchies and gadgets, including the Scratch Bot, which will automatically scratch your tickets, along with upgrades to its speed and capacity that help streamline your growing scratchy empire. As you progress, you’ll unlock more varieties of scratchies, offering larger prizes and even larger pitfalls. Some of these can leave you making a deal with the devil just to get out of debt, potentially leaving you with only a few dollars in the bank before you’re forced to wash some dishes and work your way back up again.
This risk-and-reward element should keep things exciting, but some of the penalties can be absolutely brutal. We’re talking 6000% interest and debilitating debuffs that can slow your Scratch Bot down by 90%. Suddenly, your carefully constructed scratching empire comes grinding to a halt, and it can sometimes feel like it’s quicker to simply restart the run than slog your way back from a particularly nasty penalty. That said, when everything goes your way, Scritchy Scratchy becomes incredibly satisfying. You’ll unlock tools like a fan that automatically pushes your scratchies into the Scratch Bot, a lucky cat called Mundo that collects your winnings, and systems that let you trash dud tickets before they can drag your bank balance into the red. Eventually, you’ll have a whole suite of gadgets, multipliers and bonuses working together to make your scratching operation faster, more efficient and, hopefully, much more profitable.
Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking that scratching the same tickets over and over would get repetitive rather quickly. And yet, somehow, this humble games critic found himself staring soullessly into his Switch at 4 am, wondering where the hell the time had gone. Even as I’m writing this review, I keep taking my hands off the keyboard, despite having already seen both endings, because I just want to max out my stats. At this point, I’m not entirely sure when I’ll be free from Scritchy Scratchy’s grasp… Most likely when The Witcher 3 launches in less than two hours. Until then, this game has me completely absorbed.
Which is quite funny because, on the surface, Scritchy Scratchy doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles visually. It takes a very minimalist approach, with graphics that are very simple in nature. As a matter of fact, a lot of the game’s elements look like they were drawn in something like MS Paint, and while they certainly aren’t going to be pushing the Switch 2’s graphics processor to its limits, they work well given the nature of the game. Everything is backed by an earworm-inducing BGM loop that sits in the background while you scratch away, and that tune somehow becomes part of the game’s hypnotic appeal. As you might expect from such a simple-looking game, everything runs without a hitch, and I experienced no bugs or issues during my playthroughs.
For my scratchers looking into accessibility, you can use the touchscreen to scratch away at your tickets, and it works really well. Alternatively, the standard controls use the analogue sticks to control your scratching, giving you another way to play if you prefer physical controls. Beyond that, there aren’t any additional accessibility features to speak of, so as always, I recommend further research into finding out if Scritchy Scratchy suits your accessibility needs.
At just under $10, or roughly the price of a couple of scratchies, Scritchy Scratchy will keep you entertained for around 6–10 hours, depending on your playstyle. It will definitely be an acquired taste, and those looking for a little more depth might find Scritchy Scratchy lacking. But for me, it proved to be a fun little distraction between some of the heavy-hitting titles arriving during this packed final quarter of the year.
Scritchy Scratchy is certainly a unique and addictive game, and thanks to its incremental nature, it can become a largely hands-off experience once you’ve automated your scratching empire. That said, it certainly sunk its hooks into me, scratching away until the early hours of the morning and wondering where the time went. Now that I’ve finally seen both endings, I’m tired, a bit scratched out, and I think I’m finally free.
So, What’s it Like? Scritchy Scratchy is like having an unlimited budget at the newsagency to spend on scratchies.
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