Defunct

Nintendo Switch (3), 2018
Developer: Freshly Squeezed
Publisher: SOEDESCO

If you play Switch than you know that every week they have a sale. They usually have some good games that are half off, but the ones that really interest me are the one that cost less than a dollar. They will often have games that are just a few pennies. A ten cent game is practically a free game. How can I pass on that? Some of the games are pure trash, but some of them are at least interesting. Then there are ones like Defunct that almost play like tech demos. It’s a good concept with very little game.  

Defunct is an adventure game where you play as a unicycle robot trying to find its way home. The gimmick is that you can use the terrain to get some very high speeds. This is both the game’s strength and weakness. Of course going really fast is always fun, but it also makes it easy to miss what’s going on. They compensate for this by having plenty of empty space. Most of the terrain can pass right by without much consequence. It’s also a game light on challenge as your mostly just getting to the end of the level and on to the next one. There are a few puzzles to solve, but they mostly involve going fast in the right direction. The game looks nice, but it’s still pretty empty. It’s also light on story with a dialogue free robot starting out somewhere and then ending up somewhere. That’s about as deep as it gets.

Apparently this won game of the year at the 2014 Swedish Game Awards. I find it a bit odd that a game that passed me by with so little impact could be a major award winner. That just goes to show you that different people are looking for different things in their games. However I have never heard of any of the other nominated games so it might just be that they didn’t have much to chose from. Either way it’s not going very high on the list. It’s too short and uneventful to leave much of an impression. It’s just barely squeaking into the blue section right above Gyruss. Still I didn’t feel like I wasted my nickel. That counts for something.

1. Super Mario Odyssey

2. Galaga

3. Exodus: Ultima III

4. Pac-Mania

5. Mickey’s Racing Adventure

6. Metro-Cross

7. Gaplus

8. Dragon Spirit

9. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)

10. Red Sea Crossing

11. Baraduke

12. Gamma-Attack

13. The Legend of “Valkyrie”

14. Galaxian

15. Evoland

16. Defunct

17. Gyruss (2600)

18. Looney Tunes Racing

19. Birthday Mania