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More “Psychological Games” Reviews
Jun. 17th, 2015 08:21 pmAbout a year ago, I played a bunch of games from the Good Psychological Games Masterpost. This set of browser / free download games are similar.
Dear Mariko - A visual novel made with RPGMaker that can be played in about ten minutes. The most important thing to know is that there are three endings, and the game’s only real puzzle is finding them all. It’s not a happy story, but it’s a cleverly set up ten-minute video game.
Average Maria Individual - I’ve lost track of whether I’d reviewed this before, as I played a little of it last fall. This sets up like a sprite-hack of the original NES Super Mario Brothers, but Maria can only jump half a tile and can’t fight, so you need to talk to all of your enemies. (She’s still trying to find her girlfriend, though.) It becomes an interesting musing on the nature of video game characters. The key to the best ending is not being a dick—you need to respect everyone’s autonomy and generally be nice. There’s a thorough analysis of the game, if you’re interested, but I’d recommend playing it first.
Grand Adventure! - While the actual system screens seem like Atari 2600-level graphics, the game is much more than that—in terms of being creepy and disturbing. The cutscene images show you both a clearer picture of the horrible place you’re adventuring in and hint to the reality of the situation. (I found the game fairly easy once you figure out the puzzles to beating each boss and learn to dodge the ghost.) Beating it three times gets an alternate ending; and finding the three hidden crystals and figuring out what to do with them (hinting in the other endings) gets you the true ending.
Every Day the Same Dream - A simple game of everyday monotony and trying to find what you can do to make a man’s life different on any given day. The ending is sad…or is it? The deconstructions in the comments are interesting.
Dear Mariko - A visual novel made with RPGMaker that can be played in about ten minutes. The most important thing to know is that there are three endings, and the game’s only real puzzle is finding them all. It’s not a happy story, but it’s a cleverly set up ten-minute video game.
Average Maria Individual - I’ve lost track of whether I’d reviewed this before, as I played a little of it last fall. This sets up like a sprite-hack of the original NES Super Mario Brothers, but Maria can only jump half a tile and can’t fight, so you need to talk to all of your enemies. (She’s still trying to find her girlfriend, though.) It becomes an interesting musing on the nature of video game characters. The key to the best ending is not being a dick—you need to respect everyone’s autonomy and generally be nice. There’s a thorough analysis of the game, if you’re interested, but I’d recommend playing it first.
Grand Adventure! - While the actual system screens seem like Atari 2600-level graphics, the game is much more than that—in terms of being creepy and disturbing. The cutscene images show you both a clearer picture of the horrible place you’re adventuring in and hint to the reality of the situation. (I found the game fairly easy once you figure out the puzzles to beating each boss and learn to dodge the ghost.) Beating it three times gets an alternate ending; and finding the three hidden crystals and figuring out what to do with them (hinting in the other endings) gets you the true ending.
Every Day the Same Dream - A simple game of everyday monotony and trying to find what you can do to make a man’s life different on any given day. The ending is sad…or is it? The deconstructions in the comments are interesting.
