Genre: Puzzle, Platformer, Simulation
Original Release: September 26, 2022
Developer: Doctor Shinobi
Publisher: Doctor Shinobi
Platform: Steam
NOTE: This game is free to play. There are some paid DLC if you like the game but these are optional.
Gonna be honest, stuff like this is usually out of my wheelhouse. I love puzzles, I love periodically tidying up my computer, and I like platforming games. Am I good at any of these? That’ll depend on who you ask. So what drew me to this title? Well, I was kinda mindlessly browsing the internet on my break at work and I saw an article on Kotaku or another gaming-adjacent site (I really wish I remember which one) that mentioned this was free and actually pretty good. I downloaded it and, as is the grand tradition of Steam users, I let it sit in my library untouched for a little bit.
About a week later, I wasn’t sure what to play. I had just finished Pikmin 4 and didn’t feel like getting back to Yakuza 3 Remastered (I’ll write about them eventually, I promise), and then I remembered that I had a free game installed and ready to play. Right away, those launch options grabbed me and I needed to know what happens if I picked the clown nose option. Well played, Doctor Shinobi. Well played indeed.
The game starts off with a gray fog of some kind drifting around your desktop, asking you to give it a file titled “Lumi.” Doing so gives it the shape of the small person you see in the screenshot above. Her name is Lumi, and she has no memory of her past or how she got to your computer. You need to help her by finding more of her files on your computer and solving puzzles to start the decryption process.
Once that’s done, a window will open and you can drag Lumi into it, experiencing her memories alongside her. At this point the game changes from a puzzle/simulation to a platformer. Controls are basic with a jump and double jump, but get a little more involved in later sections.
The game is very short and sweet, but I enjoyed pretty much every moment of it. There’s an idle game that you can play by programming some very basic movement in a notepad document, but you can also ask Lumi to play it for you so it’s not a wall if you can’t figure it out or don’t feel like beating your head against the wall. My notes for this segment read as follows:
while (true)
{
cry()
}
It’s really not that bad, I just found it especially tedious and there are some achievements tied to it so if you’re an achievement hunter like my brother it can feel like a lot.
All told, it’s worth the two or three hours I spent with it. I laughed, I scratched my head, I had a good time. Maybe I’ll play it again down the line, but not for a little while I don’t think. Outcore has definitely earned my recommendation.
There’s DLC ranging from $14.99 for the soundtrack to $44.99 for the “Amazing Super Duper Ultra Hyper Mama Mia Papa Pia Wawa Wee Waa Five Shekel Kosher Falafel Deluxe Extra Sugoi Mega Kawaii Gold Diamond Nirosta Plastic Director’s Cut Special Edition Supporter Pack Plus PLUS” which gives you access to the clown nose from the “Clown Nose Supporter Pack” but it changes color and adds some extra dialogue. The Steam description even says you should probably only buy it if you wish to support the game. I might pick that up some day. That’s what I’d do if I had billions of dollars: support developers who give me the option to buy a color-changing clown nose in their games. More games need clown noses in general.
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