Reviews by Kinetic Mouse Car

Mars and Earth are at war. Mission 193 was just another mission sent to the Red Planet. Its objective was to take control of the Martian military.

It didn’t go well. To avoid bad press, Mission Control claims it was successful.

But you’re not buying it. And so, you’ve infiltrated a government database to find out what really happened.

A Bare-Bones Jam 2025 entry.

Gameplay
Mission 193 left five soldiers isolated on Mars. The gameplay involves listening to their individual audio recordings. These are listed by last name. Mitch. Fox. Rook. Olsen. The fifth is Lain, but she doesn’t have any.

UIF_M_193_W1 : Sol +7, 17:30:26 MLT : User: S. Mitch

This is not a database that you search and explore. Logs are made available in groups, or “waves,” and must be listened to in order before you can access the next wave.

[Team Logs now available]

I’d categorize Martia Termina as a passive investigation game. You’re just there to read the logs. Interactivity is surface-deep. Progress is made by tapping/clicking on the screen to read each passage. I’m not against this. However, games that follow this format can have a harder time maintaining the player’s attention. This was the case for me.

At first, I couldn’t follow the story. This is partly my own issue. I need to read things more than once before it clicks. But the implementation certainly didn’t help. For one thing, the screen only displays whatever is currently being said. It then disappears.

A. Olsen [What did you want to ask anyway, Fox?]

The “history” feature displays a transcript- extremely helpful- but only for recent dialog. If it has a scrollbar, it doesn’t work. Furthermore, when you access a new wave, everything before it is no longer available. As for autoplay mode, the slider that controls its speed is stuck at the slowest setting. All of this makes replays a drag, even with the single save file.

Story
Backstory is minimal. Mars is inhabited by an alien species whose tech is sought after by Earth. Mission Control serves as Earth’s leadership, or at least where the Mars-Earth conflict is concerned. Its personnel are quickly discarded once they are no longer useful.

It took me a while before I could follow the outline of the story because the logs aren’t always in chronological order. Out of curiosity, I want to know what players think:

Characters
I don’t think the PC is ever identified. Our role is to be an anonymous protagonist who simply witnesses the truth. And we sure do.

Martia Termina focuses on building tension between characters. Take a group of soldiers and isolate them on Mars after a tough mission. Next, have them answer to an entity that cares more about material gain than human lives. Finally, add distrust, in-fighting, clash of personalities, ulterior motives, and you will get this game. Oh, (Spoiler - click to show)and some of them may have been involved romantically.

These tensions are effectively conveyed. The odds are stacked against them, and we feel it. But it also can get rather caustic. Character interactions have a nastiness that may take players by surprise. It feels like everyone is this close to snapping. (Spoiler - click to show)Some do.

Visuals
Bare-Bones Jam is perfect for this game. The rules require games to use their system’s default appearance. No customization. Martia Termina is made with Video Supertome, which means a black screen with white text in a digital-looking font. This appearance, combined with the lack of thrills, pairs well with the game’s military sci-fi genre. The black-and-white artwork on the game’s itch.io page is awesome.

Final thoughts
If you prefer story over gameplay or are a fan of military science fiction, play Martia Termina. Despite being a passive listener, the recordings provide a front row seat to the drama that goes down. It can get intense.

Tough characters who don’t get along are stuck in a dangerous alien-made facility and forced to rely on leadership that only cares about PR and profit. You have your (Spoiler - click to show)designated “evil teammate,” though they all seem to occupy moral shades of grey. Reminds me of a few sci-fi films…

Otherwise, whether you enjoy it will likely be hit or miss. I was all for the story, but it was the implementation that wore me out. I needed to play this multiple times to understand the story. Unfortunately, its design does not inspire replays. Only exhaustion. At least fix the autoplay feature. That would be fantastic.

Three stars, but a strong three stars.

baby:OFF is a short Ink game submitted to Bare-Bones Jam 2025. It follows a protagonist who is struggling with the aftermath of a failed relationship with someone named TJ. To cope, they buy a customizable android known as a “GenDroid.” Designed to look exactly like TJ, the protagonist calls the android Not-TJ.

Gameplay is rather linear. It all takes place in a cheap motel where the protagonist is getting personal with Not-TJ. Choices are made to alter the immediate moment but have no broader effect on the story in general. However, the player’s choices reveal different details about the story, providing incentive for multiple playthroughs.

I want to give a quick shoutout to the writing.

Firmly secured under heavy layers of bubble wraps and blocky styrofoam was her sleeping figure... A sleeping doll yet to experience the world outside its cocoon.

There’s something about its descriptiveness. It does a good job at helping you visualize the technology featured in the story.

TJ
I wish there was more backstory on the protagonist’s relationship with TJ because what we’re told feels extremely one-sided. It sounds like TJ had a controlling streak towards loved ones that would manifest physically and emotionally. But when the protagonist started to become more successful in life, TJ ended things out of jealousy. That’s pretty much it.

Using their new wealth, the protagonist then bought a GenDroid to model after TJ. A recurring theme is how the protagonist simultaneously relished and despised TJ’s destructiveness towards them. Not-TJ serves as a way for them to revisit this dynamic on their own terms.

Despite the overall antagonization of TJ’s character, I liked that the game also recognizes her as a person with multiple dimensions, and this is symbolized through how she experimented with different hair colours.

Sun-kissed brown.
Aimless.
Vulnerable.
Honest.

Of course, in Not-TJ’s case, this is just another thing we control.

Not-TJ
In creating Not-TJ, the protagonist projects their past onto something they can control: An android, programmed to serve. Whether that be for expressing affection or acting as a means for the protagonist to vent their frustration. And yet, it feels hollow. GenDroids sell a fantasy for the consumer. Any obedience or affection is the product of an algorithm.

The game snowballs from here, wrapping up surprisingly quickly.

Final thoughts
I realize that baby:OFF may have subtleties that were lost on me, but overall, I liked the ideas presented. The writing is descriptive and precise, allowing us to view the world, or at least its technology, from the protagonist’s perspective. And while there’s sexual content, it never felt overwhelming or distracted from the story.

However, the ending feels too abrupt to be conclusive. So many interesting developments that get cut short. Also, I wish the game was less one-sided in its coverage of the protagonist’s relationship with TJ. Interesting characters, that’s all.

A memorable game, nonetheless.

If you've played The Sims 2, odds are you have been freaked out by stories of how easy it is for the game to get corrupted, and the crazy things that can happen if it does.

I want to start by saying that I was greatly impressed with The Sims 2 Corruption Creepypasta (aka TS2CC). While it’s more of an essay than a conventional Twine game, it strikes a balance between the two by combining fascinating, in-depth analysis with surprising interactivity. It's also a submission to Bare-Bones Jam 2025.

The Sims is a popular life simulation series. There have been rumors that its second installment, The Sims 2, can be horribly corrupted if the player performs certain actions, with unsettling results. Ultimately, there is no basis for these rumors. A mere myth. TS2CC seeks to understand why this myth flourished so easily…

What is it about these myths that has convinced, and, in some sense, captivated people for so long? Why have they been shared, amplified, built upon, and believed?

…and why it manages to retain its allure even after being discredited. To answer these questions, TS2CC compares The Sims 2 corruption myth to creepypastas about technology-related fears.

PART A: Gameplay/Design
The execution of this game is fantastic. It’s what earns TS2CC its fifth star.

Gameplay
Despite being an essay, TS2CC makes good use of the Twine format to include interactive content, elevating the essay from merely something we read to something that provides an experience. Something playable.

Interactivity is surface-deep and does not affect the gameplay’s linearity. Its potency lies in building atmosphere and providing ways for the player to engage with passages while reading. What’s remarkable is how this interactivity injects a subtle weirdness that pairs well with the essay’s topic. For example, the section that discusses intentional corruption has a link that, when clicked on, causes a passage’s text to shift and distort.

Even the cover art is spooky.

My only complaint is that the game (Spoiler - click to show)simply ends with a link-less passage and no indicator that the game is over. The writing implies that it is, but at the same time, players are left wondering if they’ve landed on a broken passage. A small confirmation would be appreciated.

Design
The Bare-Bones Jam is a perfect fit for this game. Entries are required to stick to their system’s default format. As a Twine game, TS2CC has a black background, white text, and blue links: Twine’s default. Jam or no Jam, this appearance works well for an essay because it’s easy to read and avoids distractions. The simplicity of this also keeps the spotlight on the interactivity.

And yet, the game finds ways to keep things visually interesting. One of my favorite moments is (Spoiler - click to show)when the game explains how glitches alter the familiarity of a game… and a creepy face appears. It’s composed of dozens of periods (“.”) which adds a visual element without breaking the Jam’s rules.

PART B: Content
TS2CC takes an analytic approach to its subject matter. The author clearly did their research- literally. The in-game Reference page will take you to the sources that the author used for writing the essay.

The player is introduced to a range of ideas and concepts, which can initially feel overwhelming. I had to play the game multiple times before I could follow the main arguments. But I loved gaining new insight in the process.

I will now share some things that stood out to me. Consider this part of the review as how I understand the game's concepts. Input welcome.

General ideas
TS2CC contemplates the "game object" which refers to the game itself, not the gaming experience we get from playing it. By responding to the player’s choices, the game object grants that person agency over it. But when a glitch occurs, "it's something the game object does in spite of the player's intentions," resulting in the loss of this agency over something you previously controlled and thought you understood.

This dynamic is showcased in “glitch horror,” a genre of horror that capitalizes on these fears and anxieties about technology. An example of a glitch horror game is "Ben Drowned."

Creepypasta like Ben Drowned dramatize a fear of loss of agency before the machine. Not only that, but loss of agency over something that used to be deeply familiar.

Glitch horror is often used in creepypastas. Creepypasta refers to horror stories/legends that are posted and circulated around the internet, often inspiring new iterations. Slender Man is a popular example. The Sims 2 corruption myth also fits the bill given how it continues to lurk in the minds of players and online forums.

From the sound of it, content that preys on our fears fascinates us in equal measure.

Corruption myth
The author claims that while the magnetic draw of The Sims corruption myth is akin to the fascination around glitch horror creepypastas, the base fear factor- or what makes this corruption particularly frightening to the viewer- is different.

The scariness of corruption in The Sims is "because it speaks to the lack of mastery of the overwhelming majority of people who use computers." Less about losing control and more about finding yourself face-to-face with something too complex to understand.

This is where I start to lose focus.

It sounds like the author is saying that when a Sims game is corrupted, it forces the user to engage with the technical side of the simulation, and that the user’s inability to understand this side is what makes corruption in The Sims so unnerving (I assume the author is referring to the average person). Apparently, the fear of this happening is so strong that some players avoid the game altogether.

Regarding this argument, I don’t entirely see how the technical details of The Sims would trigger a fear of corruption. I could understand being disturbed if this corruption produced horrifying results, as is the case with the corruption myth.

…bizarre effects such as attaching furniture to Sims' heads, turning Mrs. Crumplebottom into a bald and barefoot stalker…

But not so much with being unable to understand the ins and outs of how the simulation works. In this sense, I would just find it frustrating because the game isn’t working and I don’t know how to fix it. Well, I suppose a glitch is the same way: a machine fails to work the way it should. Still, I have a harder time drawing a parallel between the two.

Besides, a quick look online shows people using mods and fooling around with the game’s settings. Your knowledge of how the game works may be limited, but that won’t necessarily stop you from finding ways to tinker with it beyond what the game was intended for.

Or is the fear of corruption in The Sims 2 because of how supposedly easy it is to trigger a corrupted state through basic actions? I’d love to hear more from the author on this!

Further discussion
Reading through the essay’s points on glitch horror, I couldn’t help but think of a Twine classic, the uncle who works for nintendo. Its premise is based on the urban legend that kids could gain early access to video games if they had a family member, often an uncle, employed by Nintendo.

I’m not sure if it can be fully categorized as glitch horror, but there are elements that elicit the nervousness of seeing a computer act in unexpected ways. SPOILERS.

Final thoughts
The Sims 2 Corruption Creepypasta is a stellar interactive essay made with Twine. It outlines the corruption myth and how it functions as a creepypasta. Fueled by our fear and fascination of corrupted technology, the myth lives on despite the consensus that it has no practical basis. I learned a lot.

Players may be turned off by the fact that it’s an essay, especially if the subject doesn’t interest them. But even if you merely skim the text, you can still appreciate the overall experience of its creepy interactivity.

I hope to see more of the author’s work in the future.

(edit: removed note after receiving clarification)

The bloom is a submission to Bare-Bones Jam 2025.

Told in first person from the perspective of a former staff member, the game describes the aftermath of a plant-like organism, known only as "the bloom," escaping from a research facility and the transformation it had on humanity.

Gameplay
Gameplay is entirely linear and only takes 2-3 minutes. Progress is made by tapping the screen. Skip and auto-skip features are also provided for your convenience.

Story
The story is limited, but what we learn is that the bloom breached the facility and reached populated areas almost instantaneously. At first glance, the bloom’s effects on human biology appear to be devastating…

One moment you were stood in a tiled clean room, the other - your lungs were filled with sweetest spores, with tears of pollen falling from your eyes.

…until the narrator informs us that these changes were a positive transformation. It allowed everyone to form a symbiosis with each other and with nature. People possessed a newfound patience and appreciation of the world around them. Strife and other obstacles to coexistence became obsolete.

Woven in this narrative is the overarching theme of belonging. The bloom’s universal symbiosis guarantees belonging even if you haven’t found the place you’re looking for. The game ends (Spoiler - click to show)with the narrator addressing the viewer and inviting them to join. And no matter what kind of restrictions you have, the bloom will find a way to make space for you.

Out of curiosity, I couldn’t help but wonder: Did people willingly embrace these changes or was the bloom merely taking control over their minds and bodies? Ultimately, I think it was willingly embraced, both because of the game’s tone and the absence of red flag indicating otherwise.

Visuals
This is the first Ren'Py game I've played, so this format was new to me.

As a Bare-Bones Jam submission, the game has an unaltered appearance. The game’s main text is set in a gradient grey panel at the bottom of the screen while links appear in text boxes located in the center. All of this is set into a black background.

Final thoughts
This isn’t the first game I’ve played where human civilization is ambushed by spores that disrupt the status quo. Calm, an IFComp game, is one example. The bloom, however, takes a different approach. Rather than the spores’ arrival being an apocalyptic event that heralds the end of modern life, they signal the start of a new chapter for all of humanity.

I enjoyed the story’s premise but wasn’t wowed by it either because it only skims the surface of its thought-provoking concept (though this is partly due to the short gameplay and low word count). That said, if you like surreal, vaguely sci-fi, and story-driven games, The bloom may interest you.