You’re beckoned to Mothmen 1966 by a lurid 60s West Virginia, paved in pixels. It’s not all bliss, and some can dissipate before you know it. Mothmen 1966 is the first game by LCB Game Studio, which includes titles by novelist Nico Saraintaris and artist Fernando Martinez Ruppel. Volume one includes Varner Lake and Bahnsen Knights, with Varner Lake already on Steam wishlist. Three main characters cycle through the chapters of the game, which is about the mythical Mothman. The only non-playable character is the paranormal investigator Lou, a grumpy gas station owner with a sick grandmother and a teenage history student couple. In Mothmen 1966, set during the Leonid meteor shower of 1966, the visuals are the (shooting) stars.
There’s only five colors: black, cyan, green, white, and the odd splash of red. Pallid white Abby Arcane hair and the eccentric colors remind me of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run. Pixel hatching scratches ooze horror and show what’s possible with a limited toolset. This less-is-more approach doesn’t extend to the writing, which tells more than it shows. The clunky exposition hurts the pace and atmosphere. The exposition could be made into collectibles to fit the conspiracy theme. With this lumbering exposition, the game’s reserved palette and taught style only serve to disengage the atmosphere. Pixel art and writing are both about less is more. In Famicom Detective Club, the story is tightly written and paced while taking advantage of the NES memory limitations.
The interactive elements of Mothmen 1966 – a hybrid of QTEs and “choose your own adventure” gamebooks – also left me cold and rage-filled. In one scene, Lee has to scare a bunch of coyotes away so he and Victoria can escape. Most of your options will end in death and then a retry. You select an option, die, retry, then select another option a dozen times until it’s over. In every interactive section, a character does it for you after a minute or two. It would be more engaging and less tedium if the danger grew. It’s got dreamy visuals and great audio – the sound effects, in particular, are perfect – but it’s over really fast with an odd storyline. This isn’t a compliment. Even though I didn’t really like the game, there’s at least a good foundation for a future “Pixel Pulp”. Varner Lake will be stronger when the writing and interactivity are improved.
