Squirrel Stapler is a very short and mechanically basic hunting game elevated enormously by its atmosphere and increasingly disturbing five-day structure. Hunting the same small forest for squirrels every day can become repetitive, but the limited runtime prevents it from becoming too tedious, while geocaches, evolving notes, and other optional discoveries reward properly exploring the map. Its deliberately crude PlayStation-era graphics and excellent environmental sound create far more tension than the ridiculous premise has any right to support, and watching the forest become progressively more unsettling makes each new day worth seeing.

Gameplay: Very basic but effective hunting built around stealth, listening, careful rifle shots, limited ammunition, and surviving increasingly dangerous creatures. The five daily objectives are repetitive, but optional notes, geocaches, and escalating horror keep the short campaign interesting.

Graphics: Deliberately crude PlayStation-era visuals perfectly imitate an obscure low-budget hunting game, with low-resolution textures and awkward models actually making the later horror considerably creepier.

Sound: Excellent environmental audio is crucial both for locating squirrels and detecting threats. The increasingly sinister noises in the forest do a huge amount of work in transforming an initially mundane hunting trip into something deeply unsettling