Game Thoughts: The Machine
I need to tell you about The Machine, an unlicensed Gameboy/Color game released in 2022 that's absolutely one of the best games that's ever released for the console (IMO). this post will contain medium-rare spoilers.
When I booted up the demo for this game, I was thinking it'd be the usual gameboystudio fare; a quick retro romp that I'd quickly put down after a little fun. It opens with a shot of "The Machine" itself, and we zoom into a classroom where you promptly fail the "Test that will determine the rest of your life", and are subsequently invited to join the police force by your uncle, because he also failed the test in his day due to cheating.
The Machine is filled to the brim with tongue-in-cheek humor that had me glowing the entire way through. Its the kinda simple stuff that you really didn't see in most gameboy games from the era they were relevant. Gameboy games were for kids -- they might be scary or serious or gory or funny, but they certainly didn't have tongue-in-cheek social commentary. The Machine is a gameboy game for adults.
By the time I'd started my job at a factory, rode the subway car, and got a quick look at the inner workings of the machine I was completely hooked on the game. I purchased a ROM to play the whole thing on my phone, and would later go on to purchase a physical copy to display on my shelf. This easily one of the best things I've played this year -- I was playing the new Zelda game at around the same time, and would continuously put that down in order to do play a run through of The Machine.
Each playthrough is short -- my first run had me in a factory, subsequently joining a union, and dealing with the fallout in about 2 hours. I'm normally one to not replay games when I can avoid it, but I dove right back in to try my hand at being a police officer. Then again, to see what would happen if I ditched my job, or took up some shady offers, or chose NOT to join the union.
Every little choice you make in this game has delightful consequences, and I was shocked at how much variety they managed to pack into the relatively little memory gameboy cartridges provide. I murdered people, covered up crimes, sold drugs, ran for chancellor, did remarkable good and unspeakable evil just to see what kind of outcomes they thought of for this combination. I kept coming back, and each time I couldn't put it down until I saw the credits message: "The Machine Grinds On!"
That simple message of inevitability -- that all your actions had no effect on the marching on of the machine -- is such a poignant punctuation at the end of each playthrough. Your attempts to change things are so frequently futile, but it's always worth trying again.
I had more fun than I possibly imagined I would. For such a small, unassuming game it is packed to the brim with content and humour. It's a testament to gameboystudio as a tool for development, and I think more people should give it a try. Writing about it now, a month or so after being done with the game, I feel again the itch to pick it up to try to do things just a little bit differently and revisit the levels of the machine that I now know so well.
The Machine Grinds On~