We'd just made it beyond the Great
Plains when, as a token and confession of his love, Flynn gave
Poopface a flower. Soon after that Flynn got syphilis. Then, in his
weakened state, Flynn died. I think he was devoured by a wolf. Anna
died too, although—honestly—I don't at all remember what caused
her demise. I'd been through so many different versions of this
adventure already, it could have been any number of things. But our
story didn't end there. Somehow, against the odds, Poopface survived
a river raid of sorts and made it to the coast. And I finally
completed the Super Amazing Wagon Adventure.
To say
this game is a parody on The
Oregon Trail would
be both obvious and insufficient. Yes, the game has you shooting
buffalo (lots of buffalo … sometimes flaming buffalo) and fording
rivers (or, if you prefer, jumping them). It's utterly zany,
completely hilarious. But Super
Amazing Wagon Adventure is
also just a really good, well thought-out game.
The game splits between two primary modes of action. There are the
wagon driving portions that involve side-scrolling shooting and
dodging. And then there are the segments during which one of your
party members sets off on foot and the game becomes a dual-stick
shooter. Your journey across the wagon trail is broken up into a
bunch of semi-random episodes that last no more than about 30 seconds
each.
I say semi-random, because the game actually has a really nice
structure that gives the adventure some overall grounding and
consistency. Each play through—depending on how long your party
survives—will involve a trek through the Great Plains, a mountain
pass, a couple of rivers, and more. The precise obstacles you
encounter along each stage of the journey, however, will vary. A side
quest for exploring a cave might trigger a battle with giant bats
during one adventure and giant spiders during the next. Or you might
not encounter a cave at all.
Devote a little bit of practice to the game and you might start to
develop some strategies. Each animal carcass, if picked up, can
potentially be traded for extra health and munitions at certain
points in the game. But because some weapons, such as the ray gun,
decimate a carcass completely, there might be times when you choose
to avoid that particular power-up.
I
first got a chance to see this game in action during the Seattle Indies Expo on July 29. And I had a brief chat with the game's
developer, who goes by the name sparsevector. Super Amazing
Wagon Adventure is actually his
first game, and the expo was his first chance to observe the
experience of first-time players.There were a lot of
interesting games on display, many of which were much shinier than
this one, but I think Super Amazing Wagon Adventure was
my my personal favorite from the show. It had a kind of instant, mass
appeal, mostly attributable to its sense of humor.
It was
only upon purchasing the game from the Xbox Live indie games channel
that I got to appreciate the actual playing experience. I kept dying and
retrying, intent on getting through the entire adventure at least
once. Pretty soon it was like something out of The Twilight Zone.
Here were these three hapless digital versions of myself, my wife,
and some stranger named Poopface, caught in an endless procession of
inevitable death and destruction. Each journey, while different, was
uncannily familiar. I watched and played as all of these facsimile
versions of my party met their gruesome end, unable to stop myself
until the wagon adventure gods smiled upon that one Poopface who had
given Flynn an STD.
I
could have been bitter. I could have turned away in disdain. But it
was a beautiful moment. Life had found a way. The sperm had
fertilized the egg. Also, I got to unlock the game's “shuffle”
mode.
Here's
my final recommendation. Buy this game if you:
- Like an old-school video game challenge.
- Still enjoy doing Mad Libs.
- Are looking for a new kind of party game to show off to your snarky friends.
Super Amazing Wagon Adventure is
currently available on Xbox and will soon be out on PC.
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