Twice Different, the Australian-based indie game studio behind the 2020 card crawler Ring of Pain, has announced a bizarre horror game featuring our favorite silly old bear, Winnie's Hole.
Introduced out of nowhere at the end of the Blessing Show yesterday, the game is a Steam-exclusive rogue-lite genre blend where you play as a virus traveling through Winnie the Pooh's body. As you spread throughout the bear's rotund vessel like a cancer, you branch out the map and gather the resources you need to capture healthy cells and mutate them to grow as many extra appendages and eyes to transform Winnie into a monstrosity of your liking and adapt his form for survival.
As you progress through the game and infect more animal residents of the 100 Acre Wood via the titular hole on Pooh's rumbly tumbly, you'll be able to unlock new mutations, upgrades, and playable characters with different playstyles. Everything that goes on in Winnie's body influences the world outside of it, much like Osmosis Jones.
GAME ANNOUNCEMENT
🍯Winnie's Hole🍯Join Winnie the Pooh on an adventure, from within!…
Play a virus inside Winnie, adapt for survival and transform him into an abomination.Wishlist on Steam:https://t.co/5knSGcrIuG pic.twitter.com/fdpQcGaZX9
— Ring of Pain ⭕️ Twice Different (@TwiceDifferent) June 6, 2023
Winnie's Hole is the second time that Pooh Bear has gotten the horror treatment since he entered public domain last year. His first taste of the horror genre was the theatrical release of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey by Rhys Frake-Waterfield back in February. However, we rated that movie a 4 in our review because its horror mechanics were lackluster and, as Matt Donato wrote, it was "a failure across the board, not only in its writing and acting but also from cinematography to editing, except for a few gnarly character deaths."
Winnie's Hole is set to release later this year. You can wishlist the game on Steam now.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.