Chinese Parents

Chinese Parents doesn’t just ask you to grow up, it asks you to grow up Chinese. Equal parts life sim, family drama, and cultural satire, this deceptively simple indie game from Coconut Island Games is a nostalgia punch with rhythm minigames and gaokao-induced panic attacks for flavor. It’s The Sims meets Persona meets “my mom will actually kill me if I don’t get into Tsinghua.”

You start as a fresh-faced infant, boy or girl, up to you, and spend the next 18 years hurtling toward Gaokao, China’s famously brutal college entrance exam. Each turn is a week of your youth, carefully carved between study grinds, leisure breaks, and occasionally getting steamrolled in “Face Duels,” where your mom competes with neighbors by bragging about you like she’s casting a Pokémon battle. (“My son just memorized π to 30 digits!” “My daughter was on local TV!” Cue dramatic music.)

Progress is built on a match-3-style “Fragment” minigame that feeds into your stat tree, IQ, EQ, Constitution, the works, which in turn unlocks new classes, hobbies, and afterschool activities. You’ll quickly realize you can’t do everything: maxing your musical talent might mean sacrificing your shot at becoming the school jock or dating the poetic kid with hair like a K-drama lead. That tug-of-war between identity and obligation? That’s the game.

But Chinese Parents isn’t cruel. It’s funny. Kind. A little weird. One minute you’re politely mashing buttons to pretend you don’t want a red envelope full of money from your aunt (too eager = loss of face), and the next, you’re stress-managing your kid like a project manager at a soul-crushing startup. And when you fail? That’s fine. Your kid might still become a famous writer despite flunking the big exam. (Relatable.)

With over 100 possible endings, surprisingly endearing characters, and generational carryover that lets your next kid inherit your past victories, Chinese Parents becomes more than a sim. It becomes a quiet loop of ambition, compromise, and intergenerational hope.

It might not be glamorous. But somehow, it’s one of the most human games I’ve ever played.