77) Dad's Monster House (2021)

Developed by Chinese studio Cotton Game, Dad's Monster House is a charming addition to the point and click style adventure genre. Featuring a delightful hand drawn aesthetic and some genuinely thoughtful puzzles, the game possesses a charm all its own that seeps through the relatively short playtime, combining with a surprisingly sweet narrative to deliver an endearing experience well worth the price of admission.

We begin as our protagonist, Carlos, receives a mysterious phone call ostensibly from his estranged father. With a mixture of concern and intrigue, we return to his childhood home in order to get a better understanding of what has transpired. Each room of the uniquely designed manor has puzzles and secrets for us to find and solve, and it's not long before we find that our eccentric father has blurred the lines of morality in science to fill our home with an odd collection of science experiments gone wrong.

The monstrous inhabitants are pretty chill, mostly hanging out and waiting for us to solve whatever problem they have. There is minimal wasted space, with almost everything in a given room serving some purpose, whether it be a puzzle, a clue for another puzzle, or simply to show the odd fruits of our father's research. I found myself genuinely impressed with how often some seemingly random background element would later play a part in some puzzle, and while there are some blatant examples where the game does highlight clues, there are plenty of subtle elements to keep an eye out for.

As we delve deeper, we discover notes made by our father that help to give context and backstory to the oddities around us. Sometimes his diary will feature hints for various puzzles, but more often we get some truly interesting insight into the man that our protagonist cares for, even if they have been estranged for years. There's a shockingly sweet tale of a father who, despite not knowing how to express it, deeply loves and cares for his son. As someone who often struggles to express my own emotions and feelings, this was refreshing to see. Showing an eccentric father as deeply caring for his family and expressing it in the only way he knows how was a level of nuance I admit that I did not expect from the game.

Dad's Monster House is a delightful puzzle game that allows the player to have their hand held as much as they want while also respecting the player enough to not beat them over the head with solutions. Beneath the odd and stylized surface beats a shockingly poignant heart that, like with the puzzles, respects the player enough to draw their own conclusions. While I entered the experience for the charming art and the promise of puzzles, I was won over by the excellent presentation and shockingly real emotions packed into this whimsical experience.