Robert Yang has whipped out his digital loofah to clean, exfoliate, and polish Rinse And Repeat, his 2015 game about scrubbing the hunky stud you’re crushing on within the gymnasium showers. Rinse And Repeat HD is up to date with new graphical fanciness and gamepad assist (although shifting a mouse nonetheless appears a extra becoming movement for a sponging). And yep, it’s nonetheless fascinating, nonetheless about returning to the digital bathe following a real-time day by day schedule of gymnasium courses with names like ‘Pain Yoga’ and ‘Combat Pilates’, nonetheless as thought-provoking as it’s humorous.
There you might be, a schlubby dude, hanging across the gymnasium showers hoping to stumble upon your studly crush. And he comes, and he asks us to clean his again or work his pecs, telling us to clean tougher or be extra cautious, then ranking our capacity and… leaving. He gained’t be again till the following day. The subsequent precise day.
Rinse & Repeat runs throughout a number of days of real-world time, see, displaying solely empty showers when you flip up exterior the gymnasium’s class schedule.
“This game is about caring for someone, but on their own terms: the game will only let you care for it at certain times, and it’s up to you to make time for it,” Yang defined in his 2015 artist’s statement. “Like, I wanted players to literally make time for this game.”
It’s foolish, sure, and humorous, but additionally intimate, thrilling, and, ultimately, grim. Our schlubby dude’s relationship with this hunky paragon of white homosexual male tradition’s beliefs doesn’t lead fairly the place he desires. Yang talked about that extra in his assertion too.
I do like the hassle Yang places into aping the graphical excesses of blockbusters in his wee homosexual games, standing in stark distinction to the types that normally wang on about “physically-based shaders” or high-tech water. But why ought to that aptitude be a trademark of murdergames? And why are these so unimaginative? Isn’t that kind of element higher utilized in games about intimacy and people small touches? The look dovetails properly with the aesthetic obsession operating by Rinse and Repeat too.
R&R a follow-up of kinds to Hurt Me Plenty, his 2014 game about spanking then caring for a companion, which additionally had a real-time factor in locking us out if we violated consent have been too tough. He remastered that too, together with two of his different surreal and horny homosexual games, in his collection, Radiator 2.
If you’re interested in technical and stylistic particulars of the remastering, take a look at these two posts.
Rinse & Repeat HD is pay-what-you-want, with no minimal, on Itch.io.
Disclosure: Robert Yang has written for RPS earlier than. Check out his ace Level With Me series, the place he interviewed builders whereas collaborating on tasks, a Portal 2 map within the first run then a small game within the second.
