THIS MONTH
Some of the other things on our minds when we weren’t doing ever ything else
GAME
The best April Fool gags aren’t the ones that merely imagine something unusual or surprising, but those that realise it. Such is the case with the latest from Swiss duo Mario von Rickenbach and Michael Frei, aka Playables. Deliberately riffing on 2019’s Kids (“these asset flips nowadays…”, Von Rickenbach wryly tweeted), the switch from humans to cars gives it a disarmingly distinct feel. Where those swarming figures felt soft and malleable, the vehicles here are all sharp angles and jagged edges, their loud honks a more aggressive form of communication. Like Kids, Cars uses its brief runtime not to make overt judgements, its playful vignettes instead open to many different interpretations. But, as the screen becomes filled with noisy traffic, it’s hard not to think about society’s overreliance on the automobile.
VIDEO
We may have kicked the habit, but Balatro remains one of the most fascinating game designs of 2024. Here, Game Maker’s Toolkit (aka Mark Brown) examines a choice that even pseudonymous developer LocalThunk admits he’s been unable to solve. The absence of a score preview is Balatro’s most divisive feature, and Brown examines the reasons behind it, pointing out that it would slow the game down and change its overall feel. Though his description of it as a “chill game about vibing with cards” proves he hasn’t seen our response to The Needle turning up in the boss blind.
GAME
Octavi Navarro’s shortform horror shows why he was commissioned for our 30th anniversary cover. The nebbish Phil is going through a tough time: scared of venturing beyond his bedroom, he’s become a recluse. The only light in his life comes from his friend Noelle: the pair enjoy movie nights, physically separate but together in spirit. While there’s a magical quality to these scenes (as the film is projected on the top third of the screen, the rest focuses on their responses to it), as Phil grows envious of a male neighbour’s attentions toward Noelle, our sympathies toward him come into question. The dialogue occasionally falls into the trap of overexplaining things already evident from the art and animation, but this is more proof of Navarro’s qualities as a visual storyteller.
M
