What time is it? Misadventure Time!
So this week as I strolled through the internet wondering what I could bring to your attention, I stumbled upon a game simply titled Misadventure. With the preview for the game being what looked like Cthulhu’s head I figured I’d give it a shot, and what a shot it was.
Misadventure is a game all about a young child who sits down one Saturday morning to enjoy some games. Unbeknownst to this child is that interdimensional demons are attempting to come into our world by way of the game. To stop these demons the child must get the Chrome Sword and use it to slay the demons before they can leave the game.
Misadventure borrows many elements from the 1979 Atari classic Adventure. The character we control is a square and our goal is to adventure around the map solving puzzles and collecting items like keys, hammers and such to progress further in the game. Things get a little bit different though when it comes to the more aggressive obstacles in game. This time around we won’t be fighting awkward looking ducks that are called dragons. Instead we have a world full of creepy demons to challenge us.
The demons in the game have obvious Lovecraftian roots. The pixilated demons will chase us around the map and if they catch us will kill us. What is really cool about this is that when a demon kills us it will go from pixel art to a full blown image of the monster. Many of these creatures are downright creepy looking and some of the surprise pop ups gave me a small scare.
One of the neatest things about dying in Misadventure is the effects is has on the game. The death of our character will cause many weird and freaky events to happen around the game much like what the Insanity Meter did in Eternal Darkness (which if you have access to a Gamecube you owe it to yourself to find a copy of this game). The first death will cause an eerie music to start playing and subsequent deaths only make it even worse. Eventually the game gets to the point where blood starts running down the walls. These effects were really cool and really gave a feeling of weight to the game as with every death it felt like the demons were coming closer to breaking out of the game.
As I mentioned earlier the game has some downright eerie music in it. The music is very reminiscent of a heartbeat that is in line with a tune. Cool enough for music and it really helps lend a hand to the atmosphere of the game. One of the things in the audio department that I really enjoyed was the classic sound effects. Picking up keys, opening doors and slaying demons are all borrowed sounds from the original Adventure. I felt like this was a nice touch to give the game that more authentic feel.
Overall I had a lot of fun with Misadventure. It’s a nice simple game on the surface that contains many creepy and weird elements hidden beneath its skin. The classic Adventure look and gameplay gave it a great feel and the addition of demons that felt so out of game really added a bit of weight to it. The only real complaint I have is that the game is a tad on the short side.
Misadventure goes forth to earn 4 GiN gems out of 5.