Disgust.
Apathy.
Indifference.
All words you could use to describe my mood when presented with yet another video game
with no soul and no ideas.
In my line of work, you are perpetually buried by this deluge of product, and it’s not
long before you simply run out of ways to say, “This is another average game that
fits quietly and forgettably into its genre.”
And so personally, I get excited when I see something different if only because it’s
different.
And on the rare occasion that it’s both different and good—that it pushes a unique
idea and actually does it well—well, that’s a cause for celebration.
I do think Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix should’ve pushed it further, but even as
it is, her nightmare is exactly the kind of game to get out the streamers for.
The brainchild of the indie development studio Bad Pilcrow, Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix
and Her Nightmare has already garnered quite a few accolades from the development community,
and for good reason.
This is a very clever game with an outstanding premise, and you can get it on the iPhone
for less than a dollar.
Forget the Dollar Menu.
There’s no better way to spend 99 cents.
Of course, we’re playing the new HD iPad version here, but in both games, the same
core gameplay applies.
Pardon the brevity, but Vanessa is a puzzle game that gives a few traditional gameplay
concepts an interesting new spin...essentially like a puzzle-platformer that happens to take
place on a Rubik’s Cube.
You play as little Vanessa, a strange young girl who ends up trapped inside an even stranger
world.
Fortunately, she can platform, but she’ll need a little more than a Super Mario skill
set to escape.
That’s where the game’s hook comes in.
You can rotate each panel on the cube, which obviously changes the layout...but it also
opens up routes to the other sides.
And you usually have to get from panel to panel to escape.
It’s an absolutely brilliant concept.
Because such familiar game mechanics are at the core of its design, Vanessa is very accessible.
You’re never struggling to actually do anything, and that allows its fantastic puzzles and
level layouts to be the focus.
But that said—and that’s good—I do wish its theme would’ve been one of those main
focuses.
Vanessa has some really great illustrations and seems to embrace a distinctly Expressionist
aesthetic, taking cues from a lot of silent films.
Or at least, it wants to.
That’s where I wish Vanessa would’ve gone further.
I would’ve loved it if the Dr. Caligari worship had been much more prominent than
it actually is.
Of course, there are also a few practical criticisms.
For starters, you can’t rotate the screen while jumping.
Vanessa has to be standing still before you flip it, which seems like a real limitation
on the gameplay.
Had rotations been allowed while Vanessa was moving, I think there would’ve been even
more potential for both the puzzle and the level design.
As is, it does feel a little stiff at times.
But again, if only because it’s so different, this is an App Store standout...a clever game
eerily foreshadowed by the first lines in Dr. Caligari.
“Spirits surround us on every side.”