So I was watching one of my favorito! let’s play channels, Woolie Vs., a channel that usually plays a lot of lesser known indie titles, pretty much where I buy a lot of games I fell in amor with, stuff like Sayonara Wild Hearts and Chroma Squad. But there was one game I played that made me far más cautious of what I play. I saw that they uploaded a playthrough of a game known as 198X, and I was already excited from the art alone… Little did I know that this would be a huge mistake.



198X follows the tale of a young boy, who is always upset, hates his town, and just wants to get away. And he does get a chance to get away from all of it with the help of one thing: Video games. So from here, we play games, very melodramatically, as the boy tells his story, very melodramatically, and it all looks really nice. So yeah, let’s get that out of the way, the game looks gorgeous. The pixel art is so well detailed and colorful, the visuals alone are probably what is going to sell anyone on this game… because this is kind of where the major compliments of the game ends. Well, not completely. I like the music, done por the composer of the Streets of Rage music. And I can admire the desire to have different gameplay settings from a beat em up to a shoot em up to a side scroller to a racing game to an RPG. That’s admirable. But the problem is that these moments, while they do function, don’t really lend themselves to any creative o fun gameplay. There doesn’t feel like much build up to most of it. They are all visually stunning, that’s for sure, but it all mostly feels like you’re on a track for the most part. It doesn’t let tu enjoy the games to the fullest. A game that did this premise a little better would be Travis Strikes Again. I know everyone but me hates that game, but it did the idea slightly better. I know it was mostly a hack and slash, but it had elements of those other games, elements of mystery and puzzle solving, racing, RPG, and all that. But 198X feels like a jack of all trades and a master of none.
But that’s only the gameplay. Let’s get into the story. Let’s get into little McFly over here and talk about how this character monologue ruins the entire game. tu thought Alex from YIIK had bad dialogue, hoo boy. Alex was at least knocked down a peg and everyone couldn’t stand him, both in game and in reality, but at least his dialogue, at least to me, made me laugh at how horrible it was. But 198X’s protagonist has no one to lean on. The protagonist loves to tell tu everything about their life, from their family life to their thoughts on the town. Why would anyone want to listen to this jaded little shit? I did enjoy the voice actress for the character, I think she did the best she could with the script, but all this kid does is mope all over the place, endlessly. And I wouldn’t mind, I wouldn’t mind if they had a negative outlook, but do they need to explain it in vast detail for three minuto straight. o at the very least, but subtle with it. The final area, the most visually interesting to me, is ruined because it beats tu in the head with the “symbolism” and tells tu exactly what video games are. They are an escape from this kids life. And while that is true, seeing it as only an escape is a toxic mindset to have. But this game doesn’t discuss that. Video games are only an escape, gamers are rebels to society, and fuck tu dad, tu just don’t understand. It’s the melodramatic escritura that I cannot stand. Mixed with the basic gameplay, I can’t stand the nonsensical, dragged out writing. And I enjoyed YIIK, for fucks sake. That’s cause while that game was poorly written in every regard, it at least had the decency to be wacky and stupid and had interesting imagery that spoke for itself (Most of the time). 198X just keeps the melancholy feeling going from start to end. And when I have to compare a game to YIIK and I fucking defend YIIK, of all games, that’s…. That’s just sad. And that cliffhanger ending left me with a bad taste in my mouth. A taste that screams “gamers, rise up”.
198X is a game that has potential to be better, but that’s all it is. Potential. I don’t know if there is a sequel coming for this game, and to be honest, I’m not really excited to find out. 198X is not the worst indie game I played. There are far worse, like We Happy Few. Hell, YIIK is, on the grand scheme of things, a worse written game, but 198X was just not fun to play. It was boring, to be truthful, and that’s probably why I prefer YIIK. It was bad, but I could at least laugh at it and make jokes. 198X doesn’t even do that for me. And with YIIK being a twenty hora game, and 198X being one hour… Yeah, I think I know which I’d rather go with.

Up next: We take a trip to Cthulhu Land