Octodad is brief, but to its benefit–jokes are funniest when they’re not run into the ground.
Under these challenging conditions, the smallest success–standing on two legs, using the toilet, eating all the peas–feels like an utter triumph. They will break things, probably things you (used to) value. They will not stop squirming when you need them to be still, and they will refuse to budge when you need them to get moving. They will not do what you want, and they will wear you down. Isn’t that what fatherhood is about? Because your kids will fight you. Under these challenging conditions, the smallest success feels like an utter triumph. Players try their hardest, only to find the fundamental forces of the universe arrayed against them.
#Octodad dadliest catch theme simulator
Even terrible-runner simulator QWOP relies on the same joke: running should be easy, but physics make it hard. The result was a disaster where it was an epic struggle simply to pick up a can of coke.) It’s no coincidence Octodad developer Young Horses were inspired by Trespasser’s ridiculously messy physics, and have attempted to channel that game’s sublime accidental humor into something focused and intentional. (The intent was a revolutionary title with physics-based puzzles. Jurassic Park: Trespasser found unintentional humor in that same gap. Buster Keaton, film’s greatest comedian, was a master at finding the humor in the gap between intent and result. Octodad is hilarious! The stylized graphics and spot-on voice acting help sell the joke, but for the most part there’s just something inherently funny about the physical world. Octodad is a many-jointed force of nature who strews accidental mayhem in his tentacled wake. Make suggestions, sure, but the arms maintain veto power. It’s not precisely accurate to say you “control” Octodad’s arms. His stretched out legs may go where you place them, but his torso’s will follow behind at its own pace. So while his family may be blissfully in the dark, the player is only too acutely aware of Octodad’s cephalopodic origins. Secret Octopus.” Octodad’s heart is in the right place his legs are not. So what about Octodad? The game’s tagline explains the high concept: “Loving Father. Harry is a terrible video game hero but a great dad. He may not be a perfect father, but he can still be the best one he knows how. But also that he can’t give up, no matter what, dammit, because he’s the only dad his kid has. Like he’s probably failing his children in ways he doesn’t even realize. Isn’t that what fatherhood is about? Every dad feels like he’s in way over his head, like he’s making it up as he goes along. He has no idea what he’s doing and makes mistakes frequently, but he loves his daughter and just keeps pressing on. He’s a terrible shot, can’t sprint more than a few feet, and is easily startled. He’s also not a very good video game hero. He loves her so much that he will literally go through Hell to get her back. There’s nothing reluctant or detached about Harry he loves his daughter, and he’d do anything for her. The only video game father I could ever relate to was Silent Hill’s Harry Mason. These children may be crucial to the narrative, but in the game world they’re just one more minimally implemented game system. The kids are always there but also they’re not unkillable ghosts in the machine, invisible to opponents, glitch-warping, insubstantial, item-spawning. As long as the kids don’t interfere with the shooting and looting.īecause it’s the shooting and looting that’s important, isn’t it? The video game bits. With the right cuts, fatherhood can be turned into a monomythic power fantasy like any other. Really, for all of the talk of the “daddening” of video games, these characters are barely fathers. Their “children” are almost always adopted foundlings, not blood relatives it’s easier to explain the mother’s absence if she never existed in the first place. They become fathers reluctantly, and they want to get too attached. Yet there’s something slightly off about these new dads. “Something I saw at home this morning” is number 3 on the list of things that inspire game designers, right after Aliens and Lord of the Rings. It makes perfect sense that, as game designers become dads, their protagonists become dads, too. Instead of fighting to save their mega-hot girlfriends, our heroes now find themselves reluctantly protecting a precocious young girl. We’re all getting older, game designers too, and the proof is right there in their work. By Andrew Vestal 3 Octodad: Dadliest Catch: Eight Arms to Hold You
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