When it comes to weird games, Tom the Postgirl is easily one of the oddest, creepiest, and downright most disturbing titles I’ve played. Beneath its cute graphics and Little Red Riding Hood-esque protagonist lies a much darker secret. Actually, several of them. You play as Tom, a new employee at the local post office whose job is to deliver mail to the residents around town. Sounds innocent enough, right? Well, it doesn’t take long to discover that this seemingly charming town is hiding something sinister. It’s the kind of place that feels like it belongs in a horror movie, or even a Silent Hill game.

Tom’s first day on the job is pretty straightforward. A character I assume to be the postmaster tosses her a big bag of packages and sends her out to fend for herself. Sounds like your typical entry-level job, right? As you travel around the overworld map, you can press A to enter different locations and deliver said packages.

Let me tell you about one of the first locations I decided to visit, so you can get an idea of how this works. It was called The Kennel. I assumed I was in for some sort of disturbing animal situation. But no. It was much worse.

From the outside, it looked like a fairly normal house, aside from the Kennel sign above the door. Near the entrance was a bulletin board covered in adoption notices. Underneath the word “ADOPT” were photos of children, complete with lists of their good and bad qualities. You know, like you’d find at an animal shelter.

Naturally, I thought that was a little strange, but decided to investigate further. I was given the option to peep through the front window, and as someone named Tom, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Inside, I saw three children. One was tied to a leash, another was stuffed inside a cat carrier, and the third was licking its leg like an animal grooming itself. I just stood there staring at this bizarre scene. Looking through another window, I spotted a motherly-looking figure impatiently tapping her foot. I knocked on the door to deliver the package, which she promptly snatched before slamming the door in my face.

I could hear them opening the package inside, so naturally, I had to take another peek. This time, I found four or five children eating canned dog food like they hadn’t eaten in days. I just stared at the screen, mouth agape, thinking, “what the hell am I playing?”

And after witnessing something like that, you’d think Tom would be at least a little disturbed. Nope. Her eerie smile never leaves her face as she casually grabs her post bag and moves on to the next location. That’s pretty much the concept of the game. You’re going to witness some seriously weird stuff along the way. Some of it is relatively innocent, while other encounters are downright disturbing. But here’s where things get interesting. Depending on Tom’s actions, you can prevent certain events from happening or, in some cases, make them even worse.

Occasionally, you’ll have the option to open a package instead of delivering it. One example was the very first package I decided to open. The prompt appeared, curiosity got the better of me, and out popped a very rambunctious, “excited” pig. The little guy immediately ran over to a statue of another pig and started… well, doing what animals do when they want to mate. It was crude, ridiculous, and honestly kinda funny.

Since I was already there, I decided to peek through the shop windows to see what else was going on. That’s when I discovered plenty of evidence suggesting that delivering this particular pig would have meant handing him over to his rather unfortunate demise.

Without giving anything else away, I hope you understand just how bizarre some parts of this game are. It’s definitely not one you’ll want to play with the kids. The graphics and art style are simple with a limited color palette that makes red the focal point. The hand-drawn environments have just enough detail to make exploring worthwhile, and Tom can get up close to many of the things you’re meant to notice. There are plenty of sights to discover, and you’ll want to keep your eyes open because you never know what you might find.

Of course, the gameplay itself is pretty simple. You’ll spend most of your time walking around, delivering packages, peeking through windows, and interacting with the strange things you come across. There’s no shortage of bizarre discoveries, but don’t expect a particularly deep or complicated gameplay experience. The real draw is seeing what kind of messed up situation you’ll stumble across next.

And that’s the thing; as disturbing as I’ve made this game sound, curiosity gets the best of most of us. That’s why true crime shows are so popular, I guess. It’s morbidly fascinating, and as apprehensive as I was, I wanted to see every messed-up thing Tom the Postgirl had to offer.

The game takes roughly 2-3 hours to complete, with a few optional side quests thrown in. There are multiple endings and alternative outcomes to discover, so there’s some incentive to play through it again. However, the core gameplay doesn’t change much between playthroughs, and the lack of manual saves means you can’t simply undo a decision and try something different. You’ll need to start another run if you want to see how different choices play out. Whether that’s worth your time really depends on how nosy, I mean, curious, you are.

You’ll also start noticing things about Tom that you might not have picked up on at first, whether through her little actions or her reactions to certain situations. She’s an odd one, for sure.

Overall, Tom the Postgirl is a pretty unique and morbidly intriguing game. Its simple gameplay and short runtime might not appeal to everyone, but its creepy-cute art style, bizarre encounters, and dark sense of humor make it stand out from the crowd. It’s definitely one of the more interesting games I’ve played recently on the Nintendo Switch. If you’re looking for something a little different and don’t mind a short adventure, this might be right up your alley.