It’s been a while since I picked up a Highlights Magazine, so my eyes were not ready for a hidden object game. This week, I take the role of a duck turned intern and make a business out of finding lost items.

This week is Lost & Found Co.

Lost & Found Co. is a cozy puzzle/hidden object game from Bit Egg Inc. and Gamirror Games. The game was released on Steam on March 6th, 2026, and retails for $18.

I want to give a quick shoutout to the developer and publisher for the game key! I really appreciate it. I wanted a cozy game to play, and what I ended up with was my wife playing the game while I had severe eye strain.

Social media and its influence on people is certainly something that games have taken up before, but it usually falls flat with cringe talk about views, meme speak, and just general nonsense, but Lost & Found Co. takes a step back from all that commotion to show a story about the good that social media can achieve. The Goddess of War, Mei Long, has been slowly fading away as more and more people are not visiting her shrine as often. Coupled with pressure from the local government to demolish the shrine and build a nonsensical “Statue of Liberty,” Mei must maintain relevance or succumb to ruin. In a last-ditch effort, Mei transforms a duck into an intern and starts a business that helps people find lost objects.

I don’t think that I could pose a better story for a hidden-object style game.

The characters in Lost & Found Co. are a delight to be around. The influencer girl isn’t annoying like I thought she would, the mayor is as political as I wanted them to be, and the people that you meet during time in the game often have real-world issues and feel like they have an identity. You will spend a lot of time with the main characters of Lost & Found Co., and there is a lot of talking, which I was really not ready for. The story is rather important in a real-world context, as corporations are buying up everything and the community is losing its identity, for sure, but some sections last as long as a Death Stranding cutscene. I went in thinking there would be a lot more searching for stuff, and was met with a lot of story. The business-focused politician is easy to hate as he wants to destroy the town. McChonk is by far the most adorable character, being a duck who wears a fez and just wants to help out. As the story progresses, the once dilapidated shrine transforms into a modern business that represents and aids the community.

Regardless, the actual gameplay is where Lost & Found Co. shines. There are story missions and “Requests” to partake in. The story missions fill in a lot, while the requests just drop the player into a veritable Highlights Magazine. Whether it be a crazy grocery market, a shrine dedicated to foxes with a small village and meadows of flowers, or the messiest 3-story home in creation, there will always be a list of objects on the bottom of the screen with little hints to guide you if eye strain occurs. There are always side objectives to extend the time the player spends in each area, to maximize the fun of scouring every object again in hopes of remembering where that one TV remote was, only to find it is a different remote. Things like people, solving issues between people, secret areas, and even living and breathing water cans are just a few.

There are more often than not a load of side objectives to further the fun (and sometimes the frustration). On top of all the objects you will have to find, there are little areas like ghost island and the rat party to discover. These side objectives are tough because they offer nothing beyond their descriptions. Finding ghost island was difficult because I had no idea what I was looking for, and I, for sure, got incredibly lucky. Others are as simple as finding hens, watering cans, and donating money to street artists. It is a nice addition that extends the time you are playing in the

Need a hint? Lost & Found Co.knows what kind of game that it wants to be, and it will always have a hint available free of charge. If you still cannot find the item, then for a small fee of one bad juju (randomly found throughout each area), the game will give you an even more laser-focused hint. Sometimes the game really hides items well, and the hint system comes up, which is reassuring when things get tough.

Lost & Found Co. makes the player think outside the box more often than not, making me feel really smart and clever when it succeeds and stupid when I cannot figure it out.

The areas are beautiful thanks to the artful design, and the level of detail is unmatched. I think that every object has a sound or an animation when clicked on. The anime style really just makes Lost & Found Co. so much more fun to play. Though the conversations between characters can feel like they go on forever, the animations and overall look of Lost & Found Co.’s character designs are so cute that it is hard to get upset. Each area varies in size, and every time it increases, I’m in awe of how vastly different it is from the last in terms of people, themes, colors, and objectives. It is truly incredible just how colorful and expertly arted Lost & Found Co. is.

I was hesitant to play a hidden object game, but it was short-lived after I played the first few areas with my wife. There is an incredible amount of content in such a lovely video game. The story is engaging with really fun characters with loads of personality, though it can get a little too talky. The hand-drawn EVERYTHING, with extraordinary detail, is crazy. Lost & Found Co is by far the most colorful game I have ever played. The gameplay itself is pretty self-explanatory, with little bits of quality of life, like multiple hints. The side objectives are the bread and butter, as they challenge the already challenging game. I rolled credits in about 10 hours and it was great the whole time. Lost & Found Co is an all around fantastic game.

9/10