Genital Jousting - Review

 

Recently Devolver Digital had a sale on Steam earlier this month and I decided to go a little wild, to be fair though all of them cost just a few euros each. One of the games I downloaded was Genital Jousting developed by Free Lives. Considering my sense of humor I was shocked that I had not heard of the game. Excitedly, with little to no knowledge of what the game was about I downloaded it. 

I think all of us have looked at a sausage on occasion and thought, 'yep that looks like penis'. Has it ever stopped you eating one? Probably not as you know that it is more than just phallic shaped object, and is in fact a tasty pork product. Playing Genital Jousting I found myself asking could I get past the look and gobble down that sausage with gusto?

Story

I know what you might be thinking, 'I have seen the image above how could this game possibly have a story?'. Well it does, a pretty damn good one. You take control of John, who is made up of a penis, testicles and an anus. He is having a bit of a crisis, he needs a date to go to his school reunion so his peers think he isn't a loser. He is in a dead end job where he takes care of quality control testing vibrators. John decides to try everything to become a better Peen, but will it work out and can he get a date for his school reunion?

Of course the game is filled with innuendos, and does not take itself too seriously. That being said there is a real story, and real lessons to be taken away from that. After the early part of the story you almost don't see John as a peen but a real person just trying to improve his life.

Overall a surprising and top quality story, the narration used to tell John's story is fantastic and the only disappointing part is that there was not more of it. 

Visuals

Free Lives really has a great way of creating unsettling visuals with a minimal colour palette and with simple designs. The picture above it one such example of this but is fairly tame by comparison what you will be faced with throughout the game. It is important to note that peens are both male and female, and birds strangely. The two most intense sections for me were the nightmare sequences where I was attacked and assimilated by growing peens and a groom chasing me with a knife lodged in it's anus. While there are plenty of jokes in the game there is also a horror type element.

Overall the visuals are often quite powerful and not sure I will ever look at a penis again in the same way, even my own.

Music

The music varies depending on what is happening to John, panic or frustration is like an angry orchestra playing, and the serene moments often feature peaceful use of strings.  The soundscape is created by South African based composer and designer Jason Sutherland who not only make up part of Free Lives but also created the music for Broforce and The Metronomicon.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find the music to the game anywhere, this is likely due to the length of the game itself being quite short. Overall the music used suited the game pretty well but is not particularly memorable.

Gameplay 

The gameplay is a little different in Genital Jousting by comparison with most games I have played. There is the basic controls; up, down, left, right but you can also control which end of you moves, the tip or the anus. The tip is generally used for standard moving, where as the anus is used to grab objects like food, or soap to get yourself nice and clean. If you take an apple in your anus you then spit the pips out through your tip, naturally. 

There are a number of game modes including Story, Offline Multiplayer and Off Line Multiplayer. 

The game works fine for the most part until you get stuck on an object or another peen, moving around it/them can be an up hill struggle. In the story mode it is not a big deal but online or offline multiplayer it becomes a bit of a pain and takes away from what by and large is a lot of fun.

Overall the gameplay can be a lot of fun but could certainly benefit from a few performance tweaks. 

Final Thoughts 

So, after a few hours of playing how did I feel? Not bad at all. The story was lot of fun and really felt myself rooting for John. The visuals manage to be simply, funny, exciting and sometimes horrific. The music did not really stand out but with a game like this does it really need to? The gameplay is a lot of fun but sadly a few issues getting stuck on objects and occasional clunky controls takes away from making it all it could be. This one gets a 3 out of 5

Strange Flesh - Review

Some time ago I made a list of all the games I remembered playing.  Since then I have continued to add to it and I have just hit the seven-hundred mark.  There are highs and lows within that list, good games and bad.  But there are few games that so are so different they are in a league of their own, games like Catherine, Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop Chainsaw, Project Rub, and The Rub Rabbits.  Each of them is quite different from any other games I have played, and I'm now adding Strange Flesh to that list.


I love sausages, more so as I have gotten older, perhaps it is due to the huge variety of shapes, sizes, and flavors available.  They can be simple or diverse and can be a great snack or a meal.  I guess what I am saying is no matter what there is a sausage for everyone.  Playing Strange Flesh I found myself asking was this too much sausage for me?

Story


The focus of the story is Joe, a guy working in an office who is clearly unhappy with his life.  On one fateful night, he finds himself wandering the streets looking for a bar to drink in.  It seems like he won't find one but then out of nowhere a bar appears, the name reads 'Strange Flesh Bar'.  Joe enters and immediately feels uncomfortable as it turns out Strange Flesh is more than just a bar, it's a sex club for men.  Despite feeling perturbed he stays and is silently beckoned over by the bartender.  After receiving a drink on the house Joe starts to divulge his woes while enjoying the aroma of the bartender's cigar smoke.  Shortly after Joe blacks out and the bartender takes over.


The game has you play as the bartender whose role is to help free Joe's mind from all that is holding him back.  In the beginning, things are tame and depict a generally stressed and worn-out man, but as you delve deeper into his mind the true nature of his unhappiness becomes apparent - the repression of his true sexual self, as a gay man. While the deepest levels are inundated with sexually explicit imagery, this simply serves to illustrate how much his repression is negatively affecting Joe.


While it would be easy to dismiss the game as a being a purely sex-fueled game it is about more than that, it's about someone who is unhappy not only because of his job but also because he has repressed and denied himself happiness.


Overall a really interesting story, that isn't afraid to let it all hang out there and take risks.

Visuals


The artwork in Strange Flesh is really cool and it reminded me of Streets of Rage 3.  It's very colorful and over the top, but in a good way.  The bartender himself looks like a cross between The Hulk and the Terminator, which is an interesting look that works well. There are crazy-looking character designs including Columbian Joe, who is Joe crossed with a coffee pot, and fister who is mostly comprised of fists, one of which sticks out of its butt and is used to attack you.


Strange Flesh is never afraid of showing sex of a graphic nature, this is particularly notable in the Den of Lust section.  The background shows different versions of Joe carrying out a variety of sex acts.


Overall the visuals are impressive and while there is no shortage of sex both in the background and foreground it rarely felt overly crass.


Music 


The soundtrack is pretty awesome and has a very electronic sound.  The music is created and composed by Fann, unfortunately, I couldn't find any other information on this person so I am unsure as to what they may have worked on before.

The soundtrack runs a little over thirty minutes and is made up of fourteen tracks.  My favorite tracks included 'Six Six Sixty-Nine', 'Bartender Lure', and 'Coffee Break'.

Overall an awesome soundtrack that works really well with the game,  so much so that I download it from SoundCloud.

Gameplay

Strange Flesh was created by Greatest Bear Studios, which is comprised of a team of three, Blazing Cheeks, Ursa Maximus, and Fann.  The gameplay goes for an old school beat em' up style which is a lot of fun.  There are your basic attacks, you can jump, grab and then there are the special moves.


The bartender is able to use his cigar smoke in many interesting ways.  One way is to blow smoke at the figments and apparitions of Joe's mind which gets them to fight for you.  If you grab two of them and blow smoke in their mouth they become horny and will eventually get off with each other.  Once your gauge is high enough you can pull off an area attack that downs all enemies.  On occasion, it is possible to dominate the downed enemies and have sex with them.  Each of these actions gives you more submission points.


Joe's mind is filled with many different versions of himself, from simple Disinterested Joe to muscle-bound Fiery Joe.  Everything you encounter is another part of Joe's subconscious, some of them will be easier to defeat than others and the final boss is a little challenging.


Overall the game offers some really fun gameplay, while it is more intense than I would expect in a video game, I can appreciate its relevance and meaning within the context of the story.

Final Thoughts

So after nearly three hours of playing how did I feel?  Good, really good.  The story was interesting, and the artwork was awesome as was the music.  The gameplay was a lot of fun and as a whole, the game was not afraid to take risks and be unabashed.  This one gets a solid 4 out of 5