Also on: PC
Publisher: Wildbus Studio
Developer: Wildbus Studio
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: M
Notwithstanding the fact it was our Game of the Year in 2020, Iโve never been able to fully understand the allure of games like Animal Crossing. I mostly get what youโre supposed to do โ I think โ but Iโve always lacked the patience to really get into the game. So, when Freak Crossing popped up and promised a warped take on the popular franchise, I was interested in seeing what it was like.
The good news โ and I use that term very loosely โ is that Freak Crossing definitely delivers on its promise. It is, undeniably, a warped โ and very adult-oriented โ version of Animal Crossing. That much is clear from your first exploratory tour of the village and run into Old Bachelor, a donkey in S&M gear who lives in a house adorned with posters of buxom anime girls. And when you get to his story very early on, you find out that one of your tasks as the temporary village head is to convince him to not go through with bringing his mail-order bride โ or, as everyone else calls her, his waifu โ home from the train station.
So yeah, Freak Crossing earns its M rating.
The problem with the game โ if the above paragraph wasnโt enough to make you dismiss the game/run away from it screaming โ is that itโs more like a cross between Animal Crossing and WarioWare, only not as good or as interesting as either of those games. The basic gameplay loop consists of talking to your creepy assistant, going to the villageโs trouble spot of the day, and then playing a minigame to solve the problem. It gets old quickly.
A big part of why it gets old so fast is that the game doesnโt always explain what youโre supposed to be doing. Sure, itโs easy enough when the minigame is โspot the problem on the lottery ticketโ, but itโs less apparent when, say, one of the characters is shooting giant flying cows over you, and youโre supposed toโฆdo something? Avoid them? Itโs never clear.
What is clear, though, is that Freak Crossing has very specific ideas about what youโre supposed to do, and it just assumes youโll figure them out. This wouldnโt be so bad if it werenโt for the fact that itโs very easy to fail a task, which in turn usually means you get a game over, and youโre not entirely sure why you suddenly failed. WarioWare games may be absurd, but at least they give you a vague idea of your goal โ youโre not so lucky here.
The weird thing is, I can see why some people might enjoy this game. Itโs strange and itโs random, which might be exactly what certain gamers are after. Personally, though, I just found Freak Crossing to be a vaguely unsettling waste of time โ which may be its point, but that doesnโt mean I want to play it.
Wildbus Studio provided us with a Freak Crossing PC code for review purposes.