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Number of Ratings: 8
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1-8 of 8 - Ms. Woods, July 25, 2023
I'M NOT SCREAMING, YOU'RE SCREAMING, July 12, 2023
Adapted from a SpringThing23 Review
Played: 4/15/23
Playtime: 30min, 6/10 tracked endings plus 1 untracked
I’ve been down this path before. When you play a lot of games in a short burst, inevitably similarities emerge. We’re humans, we’re wired for pattern recognition. EATQOTSK is a short option-select joint, oozing with comedic tone, whose main point is to collect all the endings. It’s not the only such experience this Thing, but has its own strengths and weaknesses in this emerging subgenre.
You are the titular Elf, called to solve a fantasy mystery, how to end a curse that forces everyone in the kingdom to yell at the top of their lungs. Excepting the protagonist and their manservant. This is only the thinnest of premise, used to connect a variety of unconnected subquests, each with a wry twist on expectations, tropes, or just an excuse for old fashioned slapstick. The tone is self-aware, with characters commenting on everything from screen layout, to fantasy and rpg tropes to the game itself.
The paths are of varying lengths, but none are long. The formatting is creative, and lent itself to quick digestion. I got a lot of dry chuckles at it and it was done! It could easily fit in what I have come to think of as the Adventure Snack product line - short, funny, does not overstay its premise. Is this the Showbiz Pizza to Adventure Snack’s Chuck E Cheese?
There did seem to be some technical issues. One of the setup’s conceits was a header and footer with inessential RPG-like stats. Those seemed to reappear and disappear during subsequent loops without obvious pattern. It was particularly unfortunate when the text was riffing on rpg tropes that were not on screen. There was also a tracker, showing you the endings you found, though it appears not all endings are tracked? I found one with no accounting.
Like a downhill mountain biker, none of that stopped things - it was moving fast enough to roll over those bumps, where a slower pace would have caused the bike to spill. Momentum compensates a lot! I feel like maybe I’ve said it three different ways by now, but it’s short, it’s funny, it’s pace makes it’s shortcomings non-impactful. Like potato chips, it’s a lot of satisfying if not good for you crunch, and once the bag’s empty, you can get on with your day.
Spice Girl: Baby Spice
Vibe: Playful
Polish: Textured
Is this TADS? No.
Gimme the Wheel! If it were mine, I’d have to get the disappearing header/footer addressed. I might even tweak some meaningless values during game progress to underline the arbitrariness. Y’know, while I was in there.
Spice Girl Ratings: Scary(Horror), Sporty (Gamey), Baby (Light-Hearted), Ginger (non-CWM/political), Posh (Meaningful)
Polish scale: Gleaming, Smooth, Textured, Rough, Distressed
Gimme the Wheel: What I would do next, if it were my project.
2 of
2 people found the following review helpful:
It’s a Scream, June 3, 2023Fantasy comedy is a genre I’m not very interested in anymore, so I almost skipped over this one, but Im glad I didn’t, because I got some genuine laughs from it. Yes, it’s mostly a vehicle to poke fun of fantasy, and especially role-playing tropes, but the way many of the jokes were told felt fresh and funny. I didn’t necessarily feel the need to go scouring for different endings, but I enjoyed the particular journey I had.
- EJ, May 17, 2023
Branching elf hero quest, May 16, 2023
This is a Twine piece with branching narratives where you are a legendary elf hero, tasked with saving a kingdom.
The writing is amusing, and I replayed quite a lot to see different endings. I never got a successful outcome one. However I ran into a bug. After (Spoiler - click to show)facing the ogre single handed I got a mostly blank screen, just the red background, then two horizontal lines. The game had totally seized up.
I was also frustrated that at least in my Safari on my Mac I never saw the stats (e.g. HP, EXP etc.) on screen again after the opening. Given I was doing things to affect them I really really wanted to see them! That may just be me though.
But it was an amusing fantasy piece. Nicely short too. I’d just like to see it polished a bit more.
1 of
1 people found the following review helpful:
An amusing over the top fantasy game, May 13, 2023This game pokes fun at fantasy tropes with a lot of silly dialogue and 4th wall breaking.
You (Elftor the Elf) and your manservant (Manny) have to save a king and kingdom from a terrible plague that makes everyone shout at the top of their lungs.
Along the way, there are plenty of sidequests--sidequests you have specifically been instructed not to fulfill.
There are quite a few endings. Overall the game is pretty goofy but I laughed several times. I also had the issue other reviewers did with the 'stats' part at the top disappearing at inconvenient times, like when it was being referenced in-game.
Overall, I liked the 'good' ending the best. A slight game, but fun for people who like dumb humor.
- Rovarsson (Belgium), May 11, 2023
2 of
2 people found the following review helpful:
Being funny is an art, April 15, 2023Ok, so this was hilarious. Sometimes I am impressed with some people's ability to be funny. This was also the case here. Sure, not all jokes were funny but even those that weren't, still fitted well into the story.
This is a choice based game which keeps track of your endings. There appear to be 10 endings. I think I encountered a single bug as it seemed that I reached a natural ending but I wasn't told and couldn't restart. No big deal though I had to refresh my browser which meant the "ending tracker" was reset.
The best ending was also particularly well hidden. Not extremely well but enough so I first found it after several tries. The game is quite short so it is no big deal to start over and try something else.
I give this game 5 stars as it is mostly hilarious and I kept on playing as I wanted to see the end.
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