Review SnakeyDave 3/5 · Jun 28, 2025
His mother did what!?
I hated my first hour with this game. It seemed to me the worst combination of cloying, self-consciously quirky, and boring.
As a game, it is quite bad. A handful of mini games, repeated but not evolved upon and some limp exploration, with a very odd camera (I quite like what it's trying to do there, but it's under-developed). If …
I hated my first hour with this game. It seemed to me the worst combination of cloying, self-consciously quirky, and boring.
As a game, it is quite bad. A handful of mini games, repeated but not evolved upon and some limp exploration, with a very odd camera (I quite like what it's trying to do there, but it's under-developed). If this was a purely mechanical review, I'd give it two stars.
The thing that decides whether you'll get on with this game is the story. What I found disagreeable early on was, to me, this queasy approach to making a game about disability in combination with its zany tone. I'm not disabled but I wondered whether it was faintly patronising to make a game about being stuck in a T pose rather than a real disability. And also, not intentionally of course, but it felt a bit mocking because being stuck in a T pose is quite comic. Relatedly, that the disability itself is absurd, it seemed like it was also, again, unintentionally, saying disability itself is absurd.
Now of course, it's a child-friendly way of exploring disability without getting mired in the specifics of a real one. I get that and the game is very on-the-nose about its messaging so it's very clear its heart is in the right place. But the tone is in a sort of uncanny valley; there's lots of tangible, domestic detail (brushing teeth, putting on clothes) and it touches on quite emotive subjects, like bullying, that its flights of fancy and more absurdist elements are jarring.
Two things pulled me around on this game. Firstly, I wondered whether my initial dislike was less about the game and more about my own discomfort around the concept of disability. I don't think that's true, but the doubt was enough to make me want to give the game another chance. Secondly, when the game got crazier in its second half, it clicked. It's quite charming, amusing and silly. Still very twee, not all of its plot elements are successful, and there's too much dialogue, but the tone is clearer, it stopped being uncanny. I came away somewhat charmed.