SPOOKWARE PC Review
I got my first little try of SPOOKWARE from its inclusion in Dread X Collection Vol. 3. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and was instantly hooked. The bonkers idea to mix comically grotesque imagery with the fast-paced microgame time-trials found in the WarioWare franchise totally entranced me, it’s charming in the most bizarre way. In that demo, however, the focus was entirely on it being a horror-themed collection of fast-paced minigames, so that’s what I thought the full title would be about – three skele-bros sitting on the couch watching a stream of rented VHS tapes in a marathon fright-fest as the player battled through teensy hellish trials in order to keep them happy. Well, it’s not. What I absolutely didn’t expect, though, was that, after a short introduction on the couch (in a similar fashion to the demo), it would turn out to be a narratively focused comedy experience with the 60-ish replayable microgames just sort of sprinkled in, but I’m happy it did.
Right off the bat you need to understand – if the humerus style of the game doesn’t strike your funny bone, you will not enjoy SPOOKWARE. But, if you have a heart and enjoy the sillier side of things, you’ll no doubt get a kick out of it. I’d say if you like the nature of the jokes in Undertale, you’ll find familiar light comedy here, with an additional layer of gruesomeness. In fact, I feel Sans would fit in rather well with the protagonists, Lefti, Midi, and Righti. Covering the paradigms of shy intellectual, artiste, and raddest freakin’ dude ever, these three brothers decide to get some (after)life experiences and venture out into the world after realising they’ve spent way too long on the couch devouring horror movies. Another thing that isn’t immediately clear is that SPOOKWARE is actually split into four episodes, consisting of three chapters each, and this initial release only contains the first, in which the trio go to highschool, solve a murder mystery on a cruise ship, and open up a restaurant in the big city.
Mostly this means simply wandering around exploring – chatting to everyone you can find and picking up every item possible, usually to exchange for something you actually need later. It’s very ‘on rails’ in the sense that everybody’s playthrough will go pretty much exactly the same way. Even if you’re running through there’s not much you’re likely to miss as each location is limited in scale and requires the player to travel back and forth through them to progress. This is what I mean when I say you have to enjoy the writing. If the shenanigans of the Milk Gang, the thief that somehow manages to fit an entire vending machine through his cabin door, or the monks at The Temple of Infinite Taste don’t keep you chuckling along with the skeleton crew then not even the excellent soundtrack or strange, compelling art design will do enough to impress. It’s puns foremost and gameplay second.
Whilst I personally loved the daft interactions and terrible gags, what really sold it for me is how each chapter’s motif directly affects the storytelling format and microgame designs. When solving a homicide on the open seas, for example, the whole thing suddenly transforms into a detective case, complete with interrogations that follow Phoenix Wright-esque ‘objection’ sequences and have more puzzle-focused microgames such as lockpicking and restarting a heart by matching the beats on an electrocardiogram. When running a restaurant even the usual chapter-ending compilation challenge morphs into a meta-game about running a restaurant by showing guests to their table, taking their orders, and cleaning up after as you’re simultaneously prepping the meals via food-themed tasks off to the side. Of course the ‘food’ is eyeball skewers, chopped off fingers, and freshly extracted tentacles, but you get the picture. Because of this constant shifting in tone and environments, SPOOKWARE manages to stay fresh and engaging all the way through this first four-hour long episode.
I’m very excited to see what’s coming next, especially because of the strangely dark moments that pop in every now and then that clearly foreshadow a much more dreadful history than the heartwarming cut-out looking characters and uplifting low-poly world would have you believe. On the other hand I do have to mention that until the next episode comes out I definitely won’t be playing anymore of it. I tried going back a couple of days after blasting through the whole thing but the microgames just weren’t compelling enough to keep me there for very long, with many of them being similar in style and without enough of them to really make a big enough playlist to fight for a meaningful high score. Perhaps when all four episodes are released and the boasted 200+ microgames are all available it’ll be worth jumping back in for a few rounds, like you would with WarioWare, but until then I’d say it’s more like a comical RPG than anything else. A great time, but far from the ‘party’ experience some may go in looking for.
