Happy Game Review – Dead Rabbit, Good Rabbit

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In recent years, the domestic studio Amanita Design, led by Yakub Dvorsky, has sincerely made me happy. All is known for its highly entertaining audiovisual projects that exude a wonderfully positive and laid-back vibe that can definitely improve a day. However, last year the 2D puzzle platformer Creaks was released (review here), which differed significantly from previous titles not only in gameplay, but also in a darker tone. And over a year later we have Happy Game. A name maintained by the team around Jaromir Scaffold, who is responsible for Botanicula and Chuchel, for example. And while there are still various interfaces with these jagged titles, this is Amanity’s first project exclusively aimed at an adult audience. Personally, I managed to finish the title, so I can confirm that this is truly an extraordinary experience.

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  • Platform: PC (peer-reviewed version) and Nintendo Switch
  • Publication date: October 28, 2020
  • Producer: Amanita Design
  • Genre: Adventure
  • Czech location: Yes
  • Multiplayer: Not
  • Data to download: 1.18 GB (PC)
  • Game time: Less than 2 hours
  • Availability: 18+
  • Sales version: Digital

innocent cruelty

Happy Game starts out relatively innocently. You find yourself in a little boy’s room playing with his toys when after a while he goes to his bed, which for most of us is probably a safe haven where we can perfectly escape from our thoughts and finally relax after a busy day. . . However, the main character is not happy with this fate, as he has to travel through three different nightmares (my favorite was “Deathstrandig-Burton Third”, when in each of them he tries to return one of the things he liked). And because it’s a psychedelic horror film, this pilgrimage encounters many strange and unsettling situations wrapped up in a distinctive visual.

The protagonist faces many strange and disturbing situations.

And it is the visual part of the game that is its strongest element. The cute and colorful scenes are nicely flipped with a twisted and exaggerated dose of violence, which brings to mind, for example, the cult animated series Happy Tree Friends. Some of the scenes are really very disturbing, and they stayed in my head that day. Moreover, the story is again not told explicitly through dialogue, but through the image and the atmospheric sound and music that accompanies it (again, I have to praise the duo DVA from Hradec Kralove), where thanks to this illiteracy everyone can interpret the game in their own way, which I personally like. With the help of various allusions and symbolism, the journey of a local hero can be understood as a passage through purgatory to paradise, or can be interpreted as a story that the path to your favorite things is damn thorny. However, I understand that the combination of almost infantile children’s video sequence with brutality may not suit everyone, and when playing Happy Game, you need to tune in to a very specific mood, otherwise the game will not suit you.

Scarecrows with the smell of squeaks

But let’s move on to the gameplay. When I first talked about interfaces with previous studio titles, they appear during the game itself, when this novelty is probably the closest thing to Scarecrow. This means that you will be going through separate scenes/screens, where each of them hides a separate puzzle to be solved. These puzzles are basically the only hurdle in your process, where in a lot of cases you come to a solution very naturally, and in a small remainder by trial/error. In any case, as with the Scarecrow mentioned, the individual puzzles are simple, so you won’t get stuck in any of them for too long, making for a very smooth playthrough. At the same time, however, the individual obstacles are varied enough not to bore you when they work fairly cleverly with the themes of individual nightmares.

The puzzles are simple but varied.

However, gameplay similarities can also be found in Creaks. If you complete multiple tasks, you may die, which will force you to go through the stage again. But you definitely don’t have to worry about unnecessary time pressure. You can always think twice when death is just the result of a wrong final combination. However, the similarities with Creaks do not end there. Sometimes you will directly control the movement of the character itself, using the keyboard or dragging the mouse. I definitely recommend the first method because the second one is really very inaccurate and non-intuitive. In general, I had a problem with the mouse in the game, where even when solving puzzles, it happened to me several times that either an action was performed that was not what I wanted, or my click was not registered at all.

funeral fun

And speaking of technical issues, I would welcome the game to offer customization options with at least basic sliders, which I could not find anywhere (but it is possible that this is only the specifics of the version I am testing).

What bothered me the most was the short play time.

These complaints can be relatively well dismissed, but what bothered me the most was the very short game time, which attacks in less than two hours. In fact, I wouldn’t mind much if, like Scarecrow, I felt I was getting enough. However, I dare say that there was certainly room for further development, when, for example, the end seemed a little cut to me.

(Not) fun game

But despite this, I can recommend the new game of the long-established Brno team, when I really admit that he was not afraid to go in a different direction again, despite the possibility that this time he will definitely not be grateful to everyone, because the title still needs to go a bit against. But once you tune into its wave, you will get (un)pleasant sensations that will remain in you for several days.

Consideration

happy game

We like

  • Peculiar visual
  • Atmospheric sound system
  • Variety of puzzles
  • The literalness of the story and the boldness of the concept
  • pleasantly disturbing

it worries us

  • Definitely canape
  • Controls sometimes not fully responsive
  • It takes a really certain mood

Source :Indian TV

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