Day 164 - Spiko's Scary Spooky Story
SPOOKY MONTH!, Shitpost, Horror ·
Skeeter’s Take:
Sam and I both had a busy day and we were looking for something short to review today, and Spiko’s Scary Spooky Story was looking very promising from the start. It says it’s a short game for halloween and only had the following for controls:
I will be honest, I did not have high expectations. Spiko’s Scary Spooky Story is barely a game. It’s more of a short video story, except you can kind move the camera around and your only view is this:
The game consists entirely of someone named Spiko the Hedgehog telling the story of a spooky incident that happened to him earlier in the woods. As the player, you just sit, and listen, and look at the weird blind/shutters that cover all the interesting stuff in the background. That’s kind of all there is.
However, I loved Spiko’s Scary Spooky Story. It hits just the right amount of dry self-aware humor, with a purposefully meandering script and a very solid performance by whoever played Spiko (Turns out it’s the dev: Nice work!):
There’s even a twist that is crucial to the execution of the final product that is Spiko’s Scary Spooky Story. I really liked the twist. I won’t spoil it. But It’s dumb. Not in the bad way - in the “I’m just here to have fun and I don’t care” kind of way. The whole game is dumb. It knows this. It relishes in it. And I am here for it. These are the kind of projects that won’t land with everyone, but this dev managed to reach through the proverbial creative veil, stick their hands directly into the messy MS Painted vat of goopy irradiated humor that I base my entire sense of personality on, and give it a good tickle.
This is rad. I love this. Thanks for the laugh.
Recommend: Yes
Replay Percentage Chance: 60%
Time Played: 5-ish minutes?
Sam’s Take:
This is fucking adorable. In 20 years I could see some developer making it big with the next equivalent of Stanley Parable or something, and they ask him, “what’s the first game you ever made” and the dev would respond, “Spiko’s Scary Spooky Story”. It’s not complex, it’s just moving around in a closet listening to someone tell a Spooky story, but the voice performance is clean, the art is MSpaint, but a more detailed MSpaint then we usually see, it’s very playful. It’s hard to describe what’s good about a game that just has charisma, but I think it’s honesty that sets it apart. Why are there so many little details in the curtains and sign in the MSpaint room? Why does the script sound like it had a genuine second (maybe even third!) draft? Why is the dev giving 110% to their voice performance? The only thing that makes sense is that they just enjoyed making it.
Spiko’s is just someone who wanted to make a game. They didn’t want prestige, they weren’t concerned with making their opus, they weren’t trying to make the next big whatever, they just wanted to make a thing. Then they had fun making it, so they kept adding in little details, making sure everything was just right. Spiko’s is the ideal shitpost, the perfect mix of fun and craft.
Recommend: Yea
Replay Percentage Chance: 50%
Time Played: 5-ish minutes?
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