The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo Review

The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo is an absolutely horrifying masterpiece of what a psychological thriller should be. If there is anything the game lacks, it’s an initial explanation of what to expect or the back story of the main characters which may throw some people off. Upon booting up the game I had no idea what to expect.

The game starts off kind of slow, you make a choice of who your friend is by picking their name and then a few minutes later you’re over at their house for a sleepover. Quickly I was immersed into a friendship I had never had that felt truly genuine. The game is based around the premise of asking questions and paying attention to key clues about the history of the characters and look for inconsistencies.

The games control are a simple point and click. As text appears on the screen with each scene some text will appear in red lettering. By clicking on this lettering you dig deeper, uncovering some hidden or forgotten truth about what key events happened around the aforementioned moment in the conversation before returning to the conversation once more to either continue your inquisition on another red topic or move on through to the next scene.

Going into the story I had no hints to the fact that anything could be off until after 7:00 P.M. From this point on the games changes from being a normal night over at your friend’s house to a countdown to either your own demise or salvation. As the hours ticked by I was eventually told that my friend’s uncle will be stopping by at midnight. my friend paid no attention to the news and the night continued. From this point on every second counts. I didn’t know it at the time but after multiple playthroughs and over an hour of time spent into the game I realized just how important the ticking clock in the corner was.

I casually played through my first night, completely oblivious to what was to come but managed to gather as much information as I possibly could. When midnight finally came there was a horrifying knocking at my friend’s door that announced the arrival of his Uncle. I ignorantly followed him to the door, not having any reason to expect foul play and was met with a vision of nightmarish quality that concluded my first attempt.

From then on I tried over and over again to get all six (6) of the possible endings to the game and by the time it was all said and done I was thoroughly pleased with what I had learned and how my story ended. The author of the game, Michael Lutz, leaves a secret file of notes and stories for anyone lucky, smart, or patient enough to solve the sixth ending and find the true ending to the game that really puts things into perspective and shares a real to life situation that is truly horrifying.

The game has a very high replay value, demanding you take the time to try the game over and over again to see what you missed to attempt to get the other endings and the elusive hidden true ending. This combined with the ambient background music truly makes this game stand out from most indie horror games of it’s type, making it more like an interactive horror movie of which your actions determine the ending.

The story itself is reminiscent of the author’s original work My Father’s Long Long Legs in that is it a point and click, text-based game or suspense and supernatural values but is a much more relatable tale in that you the player determine the name of your companion and experience the story first hand rather than having it retold to you by the witness as in My Father’s Long Long Legs. This detail gives the story a much scarier feeling. The player being concerned for a life that feels much more like their own than some stranger or sibling to which they have no connection.

The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo can be played for free in browser on any device able to connect to the internet at Jayisgames.com and is a story worth experiencing. Just be careful child and pay attention to the details lest you become the mysterious Uncle’s next victim.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.