Garten of BanBan

Overview

Garten of BanBan is a first-person survival horror video game in which players navigate BanBan's kindergarten and survive against "The Monsters," a group of feral children's mascots originally meant to look after children at the kindergarten. The game, which has been compared to others like Poppy Playtime and is considered by some to be a parody of the "childhood mascot horror" genre, is produced by Euphoric Brothers and was released on Steam and the Google Play Store for free in January 2023. It became notably prominent in Let's Play videos, also inspiring fan art and content online. The sequel, Garten of BanBan 2, is set to release on March 3rd, 2023.

History

On November 29th, 2022, the Euphoric Brothers YouTube^[1] page posted a trailer for Garten of BanBan, garnering over 268,000 views in four months (shown below). On January 6th, 2023, the game was then released on Steam^[2] for free, receiving mixed reviews. On January 7th, it was then featured on Steam's front page.^[3]

Enter Banban's Kindergarten, and you're sure to make some friends. Explore the mysterious establishment and don't lose your life and sanity. Uncover the horrifying truth behind the place, but be careful, as you are far from alone…

Garten of BanBan 2

On February 18th, 2023, the Euphoric Brothers YouTube^[4] page posted the trailer for Garten of BanBan 2, set to release on March 3rd (shown below). The video gained over 1.1 million views in a month.

Online Presence

Garten of BanBan received mixed reviews online following its release, with some finding it to be a copycat of titles like Poppy's Playtime and criticizing it for following the "childhood mascot horror" genre like so many other horror video games. Others, however, hypothesized that the game is a parody of the genre. On January 9th, 2023, Twitter^[5] user @Chikiababy1 started a thread explaining why they believe Garten of BanBan is a satire, garnering over 2,800 likes in two months. On January 14th, Twitter^[6] user @useraqua_ posted a screenshot from the game writing, "starting to think garten of banban is a fully satire game just for this secret alone," garnering over 1,600 likes in the same span of time (shown below).

The game has inspired numerous works of fan art and memes. For example, on January 14th, 2023, a Redditor posted a meme to /r/okbuddyretard^[7] about the game, garnering over 90 upvotes in two months (shown below, left). On January 16th, the @Euphoric_Bros Twitter^[8] page posted a version of the First Time meme referencing criticisms towards the game, garnering over 8,100 likes in roughly the same span of time (shown below, right).

On January 19th, YouTuber Markiplier notably played through the game, garnering over 2.6 million views in two months (shown below).

Search Interest

External References