![]() This time, players will find themselves playing as a little boy who experiences a terrible nightmare, passing through three unique worlds filled with playful tasks and puzzles. Happy Game is a psychedelic horror adventure that departs significantly from Amanita’s charming, family-friendly style. Happy Game was just revealed today with its debut trailer, being part of Nintendo’s latest Indie World presentation, and is releasing on Nintendo Switch and PC next spring. Sweet Dreams Await. :) Amanita Design, the Czech independent studio behind Machinarium, Samorost, or Creaks, is announcing Happy Game, a new psychedelic horror game from Jaromír Plachý, creator of Botanicula and CHUCHEL. Happy Game launches on PC and Nintendo Switch next spring. The screenshots on the Steam store page give a reasonable idea of what the game is like art-wise, so I guess you can judge for yourself whether it appeals to you or not.Creators of CHUCHEL and Machinarium enter horror. For how over-the-top the game was I think they maybe could have added a bit more humor to just fully embrace it (there were a few places that did this and so maybe that was the intent throughout and I just didn't pick up on it). I didn't feel any of the heavy emotions or dread or unease that I usually associate with something going for this vibe instead I more often found myself rolling my eyes and wondering why the game was trying so hard to be edgy or disturbing simply for the sake of being edgy and disturbing. I am sad to give a negative review to a studio whose art I otherwise think is amazing, and it seems like my opinion may be in the minority based on the current Steam rating of "Very Positive", but the vibe of this game, for me, felt like something an angsty middle schooler might make, trying to think of how shocking they could make things that were usually happy like smiley faces and bunnies. I was aware going in that Happy Game would not, in fact, be a happy game, and there are many games (and movies, books, etc.) that I love that could be described as "dark", but this game just didn't work for me. ![]() I often found myself thinking things like: "Was I supposed to have to do that so many times, or was I just not doing it correctly before? Is there a difference between clicking and dragging? Is anything different happening? Is that animation that just played supposed to indicate positive or negative reinforcement?"įinally, the art and story and presentation: It felt to me like it was just trying way too hard to be edgy or disturbing, but it didn't work for me. Maybe I wasn't enjoying the actual story experience and that predisposed me towards being less patient than I normally would be? Whatever the reason, even though I usually like this kind of puzzle design it wasn't really working for me in this particular game. I have played and enjoyed many games with this kind of gameplay (notably many by Amanita Design themselves) and so I'm not sure what it was about Happy Game that felt so off to me. It also wasn't obvious, however, whether a click or a click and drag or something else was having a good or bad or any effect. It often wasn't obvious what could be interacted with, but at least there weren't ever many choices. The first part of that, however, did not appeal to me and was more often a source of frustration rather than satisfaction. The second part of that, the puzzles themselves, are adequate, but not great. Most of the puzzles consist of first figuring out what interactions are possible and then figuring out how exactly to use those interactions to solve some obstacle. If you've already played and enjoyed their other games then I think this one might be worth considering, but I personally didn't enjoy it much. ![]() If you haven't played any of the other games by the studio I would highly recommend them in general, but would recommend trying one of their others first before this one. I have liked every Amanita Design game that I've played (and most of them I really like), but Happy Game was kind of a chore for me to get through. ![]()
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