Yes, okay, it’s a Pac-Man game. But there are extra the reason why Eat Girl seems like a game out of time. Tesselode‘s latest is torn between two eras – deeply inspired by Namco’s arcade traditional, certain, however equally so from the late-00s wave of unusual browser games. It may simply be a forgotten gem of Terry Cavanagh‘s (of Dicey Dungeons fame), one significantly in dialog together with his net platformer Don’t Look Back.
Like all one of the best curiosities on Itch.io, nonetheless, it does fulfil one expectation. It made me really feel fairly uneasy, in one of the best of the way.
Eat Girl strips Pac Man to its core – navigate a maze, gather dots, keep away from monsters – and makes use of that base to slowly construct more durable, weirder puzzles than the traditional ever desired to. Developer Tesselode ditches the only real labyrinth for a lonely hub world, one the place you slowly unlock bite-size puzzle chambers. Yes, you’re doing the identical factor you’ve all the time performed with the pizza-shaped rascal. But there’s a carefully-considered development, fastidiously layering extra mechanics onto these fundamental actions unto absurdity.
There’s one thing unnervingly hostile about your presence in Eat Girl, although. The first foes most have a resemblance to the ghosts of yore, solely deeply torpid – unwell, even. They’ll chase you once more, however there’s no ardour for the pursuit. Later, foes don’t even make the try – you’re an invasive power, in spite of everything. There’s an rising sense, even with out phrases, that you just actually shouldn’t be right here. So a lot of this tone might be handed to the haunting soundscape, one which shifts quickly from an isolating melancholy overworld into frantic, discordant horror as panic emerges.
You’re all the time constructing velocity in Eat Girl. Yes, this results in new challenges and more energizing hells. But extra so, it builds panic, dropping management because the momentum builds with the atmosphere. It’s maybe not as on-the-nose as Don’t Look Back’s sudden twist (an previous game, however one I shan’t spoil), however the impact could be very a lot the identical. A mechanical technique of promoting an more and more dire scenario
It could be reductive to say Eat Girl is only a gritty or moody reboot of a traditional. I’m undecided it’s actually saying something, however Tesselode has created a surprisingly haunting piece of software program. A testomony to making a deeply affecting tone out of surprisingly few elements.
Eat Girl is out now on Itch.io for £4/$5. For my cash, it’s an fascinating curiosity that’s properly well worth the obtain.
