the uncle who works for nintendo

Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling
The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo (Michael Lutz)
"Like Legs, Uncle tells a horror story from a child’s point of view, building up a gradual sense that things are very wrong that reaches a point of strong suspense. It does not have quite Legs‘s singular focus and linearity, though: this one is lightly puzzly and is structured a bit more like a visual novel, in that there are several endings to unlock, including a master ending. If you play, don’t consider it done until you’ve unlocked the final end. You’ll know when that’s happened, and the endgame screen can even furnish some hints about the endings you haven’t unlocked yet, in order to help you get there. It’s worth a try, and worth not being spoiled about first."
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JayIsGames
The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo
"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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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."
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Games That Exist
Games That Exist The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo (Michael Lutz)
"Recent events have spotlighted this emptiness underneath the placeholder that advertising has long referred to as a “culture.” For decades, an idea of culture has been peddled, a new culture, different from those produced by books or film. This ‘culture’ continues to reveal itself as nothing more than consumption, and a vicious willingness to defend and justify the hobby of consuming for its own sake.

UWWFN, without blinking, looks into this emptiness that continues to occupy the space where more human impulses, empathy and conversation, should have been."
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