The already thin premise and sub-par writing isn’t elevated by the generic ‘anime’ voiceover work (nor by the creepy hyper-sexualization, but that’s another article). The Hyperdimension Neptunia series, where goddesses representing video game platforms fight proxy console wars, is an example of all three crammed into the same awkward package. We get it, killing ten rats in the first hour of your RPG is dated, silly quest design, but if you’re pointing that out by making us kill ten rats then you’re just adding to the problem, not parodying it.Īnd finally, there are those most pitiable offenders, games whose stabs at comedy are tragically undermined by poor voice acting, shabby gimmicks, and cringey execution. It’s not enough to point out how terrible escort quests or underwater levels are while you’re forcing players to complete an escort quest underwater. Like the worst parts of Saints Row and GTA, it hopes things like thongs or outhouses will be hilarious by virtue of their existence, and seems too lazy or unskilled to build actual jokes around them.ĭeath Spank also suffers from one of the worst and laziest habits in comedy game design, making fun of bad gaming tropes by putting the same tropes in your game. Death Spank comes immediately to mind, a series that felt like it was throwing a thousand things at the wall and hoping something would stick, but that ended up just feeling needy, like a stand-up comedian who begs the crowd to laugh after every flat joke.
It has the feel of that slightly creepy uncle who was amusing in grade school but is still cracking the same terrible jokes 30 years later.Īnd then there are the outright failures, games that try so hard they’re almost predestined to fall apart. But a purple dildo by itself isn’t hilarious, and calling your restaurant “Rusty Brown’s Ring Donuts” is just kind of sad. Both games have the bad habits of relying on sophomoric toilet humor or pointing at something vaguely dirty/sexual and hoping it’s funny by itself, in a vacuum. There are some genuinely hilarious moments in both (as you’d expect after so many bites at the apple), but they miss the mark even more often. Take open world stalwarts like Grand Theft Auto (opens in new tab) or Saint’s Row. Some games get part or even most of the way there but fumble at crucial points or just push too hard in the wrong direction.
Getting laughs is harder than it looks, though, and not every swing is a homerun.
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