Combining The Stanley Parable, I Wanna Be the Guy, and Undertale isn't as strange as it sounds. As games, they're very different, but the games are variations on the same theme: the relationship between players and the games they play. Undertale is about the relationship between players and NPCs, The Stanley Parable is about the relationship between players and developers, and I Wanna Be the Guy is about the relationship between players and difficulty.

Fever Meme is about how all of these relationships change.

To avoid spoilers, I won't tell you how the game explores that theme, but I will tell you how it made me feel. It brought back memories of playing Super Mario romhacks and I Wanna Be the Guy as a kid: the clumsy mess of art assets taken from other games, the janky code, the stupidly brutal difficulty, all of it. It reminded me of how those games can be endearing and funny and frustrating, but in a way that makes it almost impossible to stop playing. If you love those games, even if it can be hard to like them sometimes, you'll love this game.

....Then it takes those ideas and uses them to make something that feels more personal and vulnerable and revealing than any game I've ever played; like its influences, it uses absurdist humor to prime players for some genuinely heartfelt storyteling.

Aimbok, what you've made touched me personally, and I'm happy to have had the chance to listen to what you've had to say, the feelings you've expressed through your game, and the message you want to send. I want to thank you for making this game as a labor of love instead of focusing on making something that'd sell. I told you a few weeks ago when I heard about this game that it sounded like the perfect game to me, and it lived up to that expectation. It made me think a hell of a lot about games and life when I was done with it, and I'll definitely be working to earn that last achievement until that guy from Challenge Enthusiasts inevitably beats me to getting it instead.

So I'll have to settle for making this review so long that you won't be able to squish it to the same size as the other reviews without making it unreadable. That way, you'll have to manually update the game to move the next platform farther away. It's not the same thing as getting an achievement named after me, but making you have to change your game specifically because of me is just as a good. Now you'll know what it's like for one of your players to get the better of you for a change!

...Hmm. Not sure what I want to say for the rest of this review so that I can pad out the length enough to make that happen. I will say, for anyone who is reading this still and isn't sold on Fever Meme, it's hard to review Fever Meme as a game. The average person will (inevitably) ask questions like: "How much content does the game have? Is the game replayable? How hard is it? Are the graphics good?" when deciding if they should buy a game.

None of those questions matter with Fever Meme, because it's not that type of game. Brutal Meme would not be any better if it had fully voice-acted narration, cutting-edge graphics, multiplayer, or twenty hours of content--and for the same reason that I Wanna Be the Guy is perfect exactly the way it is. Everything that makes it jank is what makes it worthwhile as a work of art!

I live for those moments when you watch a movie and nobody talks about whether or not the film was good, because the film is so unconventional it doesn't makes sense to have that discussion at all, and all you can talk about is the feelings that the art brings out in you! If you feel that way to, you'll appreciate Fever Meme.


--

Oh, and so that Aimbok can have a good laugh at me: I got a score of 300 in the Infinite Game section. Please point at me and laugh.

Combining The Stanley Parable, I Wanna Be the Guy, and Undertale isn't as strange as it sounds. As games, they're very different, but the games are variations on the same theme: the relationship between players and the games they play. Undertale is about the relationship between players and NPCs, The Stanley Parable is about the relationship between players and developers, and I Wanna Be the Guy is about the relationship between players and difficulty. Fever Meme is about how all of these relationships change. To avoid spoilers, I won't tell you how the game explores that theme, but I will tell you how it made me feel. It brought back memories of playing Super Mario romhacks and I Wanna Be the Guy as a kid: the clumsy mess of art assets taken from other games, the janky code, the stupidly brutal difficulty, all of it. It reminded me of how those games can be endearing and funny and frustrating, but in a way that makes it almost impossible to stop playing. If you love those games, even if it can be hard to like them sometimes, you'll love this game. ....Then it takes those ideas and uses them to make something that feels more personal and vulnerable and revealing than any game I've ever played; like its influences, it uses absurdist humor to prime players for some genuinely heartfelt storyteling. Aimbok, what you've made touched me personally, and I'm happy to have had the chance to listen to what you've had to say, the feelings you've expressed through your game, and the message you want to send. I want to thank you for making this game as a labor of love instead of focusing on making something that'd sell. I told you a few weeks ago when I heard about this game that it sounded like the perfect game to me, and it lived up to that expectation. It made me think a hell of a lot about games and life when I was done with it, and I'll definitely be working to earn that last achievement until that guy from Challenge Enthusiasts inevitably beats me to getting it instead. So I'll have to settle for making this review so long that you won't be able to squish it to the same size as the other reviews without making it unreadable. That way, you'll have to manually update the game to move the next platform farther away. It's not the same thing as getting an achievement named after me, but making you have to change your game specifically because of me is just as a good. Now you'll know what it's like for one of your players to get the better of you for a change! ...Hmm. Not sure what I want to say for the rest of this review so that I can pad out the length enough to make that happen. I will say, for anyone who is reading this still and isn't sold on Fever Meme, it's hard to review Fever Meme as a game. The average person will (inevitably) ask questions like: "How much content does the game have? Is the game replayable? How hard is it? Are the graphics good?" when deciding if they should buy a game. None of those questions matter with Fever Meme, because it's not that type of game. Brutal Meme would not be any better if it had fully voice-acted narration, cutting-edge graphics, multiplayer, or twenty hours of content--and for the same reason that I Wanna Be the Guy is perfect exactly the way it is. Everything that makes it jank is what makes it worthwhile as a work of art! I live for those moments when you watch a movie and nobody talks about whether or not the film was good, because the film is so unconventional it doesn't makes sense to have that discussion at all, and all you can talk about is the feelings that the art brings out in you! If you feel that way to, you'll appreciate Fever Meme. -- Oh, and so that Aimbok can have a good laugh at me: I got a score of 300 in the Infinite Game section. Please point at me and laugh.