![]() While hurriedly trying to hide something from his family, his jabber is interpreted as "a blub of forced casualness under duress." Octodad's wife – an investigative reporter, by the way – will occasionally comment on his strange behavior, for example noting that he loves the ocean but seems to hate the aquarium.Įverything is very tongue-in-cheek, and I'll admit to several genuine belly laughs at my own struggles, but it does begin to wear thin toward the end. Octodad himself speaks solely in unintelligible burbles, which are elucidated by comical subtitles. It's all rendered in a charming and appropriately cartoonish style, which is enhanced by amusing dialogue. The mouse control scheme doesn't work nearly as well.) ![]() (Final note on the controls: Play with a gamepad. Occasionally, you'll also have to contend with Octodad's nemesis, a maniacal sushi chef out to expose our hero's terrible secret. Knock over too many items while in the sight of human being and the jig is up. That's the thrust of the entire game: working (coping?) with Octodad's unique control scheme to accomplish his daily tasks while avoiding suspicion and making sure no one uncovers his true identity. In the process, of course, you probably knocked over the kitchen table, dislodged every shelf in the refrigerator, and smacked your daughter in the head with the milk bottle. Putting it all together, you can now amble over to the refrigerator and open it, reach in to grab a bottle of milk, lurch back into the living room and pour your daughter a nice glass of moo juice. Combining the two, you navigate the tip of Octodad's tentacle toward any object and then pick it up with the tap of a button (producing a wonderful sucking sound). When not holding any triggers to move your "legs," the left analog stick controls the horizontal motion of your "hand," while the right stick will move it up and down. Manipulating objects is similarly bizarre. Climbing stairs and ladders is probably the most ludicrous motion in Octodad, looking something like a gelatinous Jacob's Ladder. Smaller movements result in something that more closely resembles walking, which comes in handy when negotiating narrow pathways. Before long, you'll have each pair of tentacles whipping end-over-end, sending Octodad half-slithering and half-tumbling toward his goal. With two tentacles squeezed into each pant leg, you raise each mock-foot by holding the corresponding trigger – left trigger for the left "leg," right trigger for the right "leg" – and point the left stick in whatever direction you want to go. ![]() Octodad (the game) centers on Octodad (the character) and his peculiar form of locomotion. It's at these moments when Octodad is at its greatest, as your desperate, flailing attempt to make a cup of coffee results in the near destruction of your kitchen.īut Octodad isn't a cartoon, and it's only when more traditional game elements are injected – boss fights, failure – that it starts to drag. The very sight of a yellow octopus, its tentacles stuffed into a sky blue suit, is worth a chuckle on its own, and the humor is only compounded as the boneless curiosity wobbles across the ground, attempting to perform everyday tasks like mowing the lawn or shopping for groceries. ![]() Like an episode of Chicken Boo, Octodad is brief and, for the same reasons as the cartoon, that's probably for the best, because you can only rely on the same gag for so long before it ceases to be funny.Īnd Octodad is funny. Octodad employs a similar (though funnier) gag, telling the story of a typical suburban father determined to live his typical suburban life while hiding his greatest secret: He's an octopus. He disguised himself as everything from a superhero to a respected Civil War general, and the punchline was always the same: Everyone around him, even his close friends, finally discovered he was a chicken. The premise was ridiculous: Boo was a giant chicken that pretended to be human. Octodad: Dadliest Catch reminds me of " Chicken Boo," an old series of short cartoons that used to air during Warner Bros' Animaniacs. ![]()
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