Game Roundup: 1/9/22

Thoughts, reviews and analysis of games I played in the last few weeks.

Pony Island

Unlike other indie meta-horror games, Pony Island doesn't keep its horror themes close to the chest. Rather immediately, the cheery facade of a cutesy arcade game gives way to the reality that it's a product of the Devil, with the player left to unravel its secrets to be released from its enslavement. The primary gameplay consists of navigating a pOSsessed OS, playing the titular Pony Island runner game, and completing simplistic coding-inspired puzzles. Each mode of play is one-note but well executed and satisfying, and doesn't really need to be more than what it is. What gives the gameplay weight in Pony Island is the context, as the further the player descends into the demonic operating system, the more the gameplay twists and turns. This is reflective of the fact that the Devil has not finished making Pony Island, and is using the player as a simultaneous beta tester and prisoner. The premise is not so much scary as it is endearing, with the Devil's frustrations of the player breaking or avoiding his game being fairly clear allegory for game development. It's a short game with a number of fun twists, turns and humor that knows just how long it needs to be. Check it out.

Cookie Clicker

I played the browser version of Cookie Clicker back when it first released in 2013. While I was amused by the concept, I didn't spend much time with it. With its recent Steam release and lots of downtime nowadays however, I gave it another shot and got hooked. Cookie Clicker is an embodiment of much of gaming at its bare basics, pure acquisition and progress. It reminds me of MMOs and Diablo inspired RPGs more than anything, where gameplay comes second to the mindless acquisition of power. All the player does is click a cookie to acquire cookies, then spend said cookies on upgrades, bonuses, and assets to help click more cookies with no greater purpose than to perpetuate the cycle. Cookie Clicker birthed what came to be known as the "Idle Game", games designed around minimal involvement from the player that mostly played themselves in the background. The imitators of Cookie Clicker however lost something. Cookie Clicker satirizes and mocks capitalism, video game dopamine cycles, and its own existence. It has a humorous edge to it, starting with the player purchasing grandmas to bake cookies, and ending in banks, spaceships and hell portals all for the sake of watching numbers go up. In our existentially terrified, chaotic and insecure lives of late capitalism, having something open on your computer that you can always come back to and expect consistency and a basic reward of accomplishment is a great comfort, and I have yet to tire of it.

Press Any Button

Press Any Button shares a lot of DNA with Pony Island. It takes place on an operating system with simplistic gameplay that changes over time with the narrative. The conceit is that the player talks with an AI embedded on a computer in a lab where they were initially invited to take part in a basic test. Over time, the player talks with and learns about the friendly AI and its creator. Gameplay is simple but not really the focus here. The music is nice too, but the focus of the game is the dialogue and several choices the player can make in order to craft a short, simple and sweet narrative about coming to understand and develop a relationship with an AI. It's only 2 dollars and can be beaten in one sitting, so I recommend it.