The esoteric indie title Kentucky Route Zero will be available Tuesday on iOS and Android as part of Netflix’s suite of mobile games. The narrative-focused game seems like one that will lend itself well to a mobile format, and after a more than six-month wait since publisher Annapurna Interactive said Kentucky Route Zero would be coming to phones, you can now get lost in its weird world from the smartphone in your pocket.
Kentucky Route Zero, from developer Cardboard Computer, is difficult to describe. It’s not so much a game as a magical realism story that you experience in an interactive form. I played it for the first time when the game’s final episode released after years of development, and I’ve never tried anything like it before or since. My colleague Andrew Webster sums it all up well, and if it helps, this trailer of the “TV edition” for consoles gives you some idea of what you’re in for.
Netflix also announced that Annapurna’s Twelve Minutes will be joining its games lineup on Tuesday, but I suggest staying away from that one. While the time loop game features a powerful cast that includes James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe, I really didn’t like how it ended. If you’re looking for something weird, I instead recommend you play Immortality, another mysterious game available on Netflix, which I quite enjoyed on Xbox earlier this year.
Netflix has added a bunch of acclaimed games to its roster of titles you can play without any additional cost if you’re a subscriber, including The Breach, Oxenfree, and Before Your Eyes. Currently, Netflix says there are 48 games in the catalog. And there are more to come in 2023, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, which is set to release sometime in the first quarter.