reviewed Dujanah
A heartrending meditation on grief and parenthood and the alienating sadness of life under occupation AND a guerilla art-experiment with the energy of the weirdest mixed media installation at your local art museum. The visuals are particularly striking - nearly everything is handcrafted, often from clay, and Jack King-Spooner is excellent at pulling the camera back to dwarf and alienate you with scale. The collage-like approach leads to a wonderful synchronicity of writing and visuals, with a distinctive prose style that weaves jokes and philosophical musings together into a strange whole. Despite the sometimes puerile goofiness, the game manages to conjure up a haunting and mournful tone throughout.
If there’s a drawback it’s the arcade. Six games combine often-frustrating traditional game design with a sometimes trite “the game…is a metaphor for grief’” approach that can feel overplayed now, 7 years after release, and clashes with the game’s generally more thoughtful approach.
Still, absolutely worth a play. It’s valuable and expressive art that overflows with creative energy that has me feeling inspired - I wish I could create games that look like this one
Reviewed on Jun 26, 2024