61) Manual Samuel (2016)

How far can you take a single gameplay concept? How far can you push a premise, regardless of how stupid it may be, before you cross the line between funny and annoying? How far can you stretch the premise of the player controlling each individual action, such as taking a step or breathing, without the game losing its charm and becoming unplayable? Is it possible for Death to land a kickflip? These are the hard hitting questions that the team at Perfectly Paranormal set out to answer.

Our story begins with Sam Welthenberg, the son of a wealthy CEO, doing what he does best: Nothing. Having skated through life without having had to develop any of the basic skills one needs in life, he has once again disappointed his girlfriend by completely forgetting her birthday. Upset, she throws coffee in his face and leaves, introducing us to the controls for blinking as Sam follows after her, only to get hit by a septic truck. Finding ourselves in Hell, which lives up to the name by forcing everyone to get a job, we strike a deal with a rather laid back, skateboard loving version of Death. If Sam, who's gone his entire life having others do everything for him, can survive for 24 hours having to do everything manually, he gets to live again.

Thus the premise of the game is set, with players taking full manual control of Sam for the entirety of what turns out to be a very odd day. Each step, breath, and blink is controlled manually. Fail at stepping in the correct order and Sam will flop about on the ground like the idiot he is. Forget to breath and Sam will go blue in the face and pass out, and forgetting to blink makes the world around us get ever more blurry. It's the type of incredibly on the nose concept that threatens to get old very quickly, but the team at Perfectly Paranormal do an excellent job of keeping the gameplay fresh, infusing the right amount of charm and humor into the world to keep it engaging, and know not to overstay their welcome. The game is a bit on the shorter side, but in this instance, that feels right.

It's actually pretty impressive how far the simple premise is taken, starting with barely walking and ending with a surprisingly satisfying combat system. Focusing more on the absurdity and difficulty of the premise, the game itself is never all that difficult, though I could see having fun attempting to speedrun the game. The writing and humor, though it doesn't always land, is consistent enough to keep me engaged with the absolutely absurd premise.

While a bit one note overall, Manual Samuel is incredibly charming, perfectly balancing the razor thin concept with enough challenge and humor to keep the player invested. Though you can easily beat the game in a couple of hours, it's a game I can see coming back to to improve my time and to simply interact with its insane world again. It presents a fun, slacker version of Death who can, if he is to be believed, totally pull off a kickflip.