This week I’ll be keeping it brief due to the fact I have discovered there are RPGs I actually enjoy and as we all know, any role playing game can quickly suck up all of your free time. I did have a minute, however, to check out a short indie game called Stupid Game with Stupid Name and WEIRD Music. It’s short; it’s easy and delivers exactly what it promises.
Stupid Game with Stupid Name and WEIRD Music does, in fact, include all of those things. The “stupid name” part is apparent before you even click the download button. Calling a game something like that gives it a nice first year art student air about it. As someone who once was a first year art student, I can’t give the designer too much guff for this. Naming products is most certainly an acquired skill that improves over time so I’ll wait till this designer’s next project to get judgmental on them. At least the title does tell you exactly what you are in for, which I personally enjoy in both movies and games (like “Snakes on a Plane”, a movie I love because it includes both snakes and a plane, just as the title implies).
The game itself is pretty stupid. Your mission is to guide a tiny top down man through five incredibly simple mazes, collecting all of the coins in each level in order to advance to the next. The only obstacles come in the form of what appear to be red blood cells (I’m sure this was not the designer’s intention, but hey, that’s what they look like) that move back and forth between the brick walls in a consistent pattern. These enemies are pretty easy to avoid, though if you start getting cocky about it, you may slip up and have to start the level over. Luckily, the penalty for death is minimal and there is no limit on the number lives at your disposal. Though the points definitely do not matter, when you have to restart a stage, Stupid Game with Stupid Name and WEIRD Music will compile your points from your current round and the previous rounds where you expired, allowing you to receive a crazy number of coins (even though they really just don’t matter at all).
Stupid Game with Stupid Name and WEIRD Music also boasts some pretty freaking weird music (you knew I had to address it eventually). The soundtrack sounds like a dub step remix of the music from Yoshi’s Story, which can get a bit annoying as expected. However, Stupid Game with Stupid Name and WEIRD Music is short so it’s easy to stick it out for the five or ten minutes this game requires to complete.
Stupid Game with Stupid Name and WEIRD Music was a nice little break from my sudden emersion into the incredibly time consuming world of RPGs (Fallout 3 may take up more of my life then I previously thought). For a cost free five minute break you may want to try this one out one or two times. I wouldn’t suggest playing through more than twice but those two times will be satisfying. It’s low stakes, low stress and easy to pick up and put down making it an ideal way to waste time at your desk job.
To download this game, visit http://www.indiedb.com/downloads/stupid-game-with-stupid-name-and-weird-music.