![]() I did like that it gives hints to the undiscovered endings. The game seems to skip over the possibility of nurturing the good of the medium while carefully extracting the bad actors for their bad behavior and just skips straight to destroying it, illustrated by the binary choice of choosing your friend or the video game, and the cracked gameboy in the closing screen. The structure of the game is also excellent such that it would be a worthwhile play even without an underlying message (which makes it all the better of a title to carry a message). ![]() This is most disappointing because the overall message is very good - that there is hostility against women in games (both subtle and extreme), and that obsession with anything (including games) can be dangerous. It makes me hesitant to share this game with mixed company for fear that I will be interpreted as endorsing the opinion that games can only ever be a negative force, and that anything other than a casual interest is synonymous with being sociopath. His perceived endorsement of Leigh Alexander's "gamers are dead" article in particular was disappointing, since it supports that same interpretation in a more vulgar and hateful way. It's possible the author did not intend for such an extreme interpretation, but his notes don't seem to offer any quarter. This is also ironic given that the author was using the medium of video games to present this very message. This is ironic in that you are bonding with your friend over video games over the course of the game, an activity that many people (myself included) enjoy with people of both genders every week. He seemed to suggest that a hobby in video games was mutually exclusive to healthy interpersonal relationships, and that the solution was complete abandonment over moderation. The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo wouldn't have been out of place on an episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, and is engrossing, scary, compelling, and even a little bittersweet in all the right ways. ![]() As in My Father's Long, Long Legs, the use of sound here crafts a fantastic environment, and the story unsettles and unnerves rather than relying on jumpscares or the grotesque. Little touches are buried here and there in the narrative, growing in frequency and weirdness as you play, that begin to fill you in on just what's going on, rather than being spoonfed a pile of backstory. The increased interactivity over his other work allows for more exploration, keeping you coming back again and again to see what's different this time, what other things you could try, what secrets you may uncover. Michael Lutz's tale is decidedly a lot more out there than a kid looking for attention, but that grounding in reality gives it a wonderful urban legend flair. When I was in junior high, there was the kid who insisted his uncle worked for Squaresoft (which it was, y'know, back in the day) and there was a sneaky, overly complicated way to revive a certain Final Fantasy character. The basic premise behind The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo is likely a familiar one, since kids have been claiming to have secret inside information for schoolyard popularity for years.
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