There is No Game here, so in turn, there is no review here either. It would be best if you didn’t read any further. There is nothing here for you.
What? You’re still here?! If there’s no game, then surely I can’t review it. There’s nothing past here.
Come on! Really? Scrolling down the page won’t work.
Look, if you’re still here, I guess I should write something…
Maybe I can review the complete absence of a game, documenting what happens when there is no game, yet a review must be made to satisfy your frustratingly persistent desire to read.
Ok. So where do we start… we start at the beginning, of course, the title screen. There is No Game: Wrong Dimension (TiNG) couldn’t be any clearer. There is nothing here to play, so you might as well close the game (or lack thereof). In my dedication to you, the Vooks reader I soldered on, I defied the game’s insistence that there is no game to be played, and I began to uncover a game that defies expectations.
Honestly, I don’t want to go too deep into the story; uncovering it through poking around and breaking the game is a joy worth experiencing fresh. I would love to bring up a few portions of the game. I would write a whole extra spoiler review so I could go further into what works for this game. TiNG is a point and click adventure game at its heart, messing with the game’s interface to see if there is more than the title’s claim and to the narrator’s insistence that there is no game.
If the game’s name doesn’t give it away, TiNG isn’t the most serious game out there. With very regular narration from the program pleading with you not to play the game, you would have to be a heartless monster not to be smiling regularly if not laughing (or chuckling) through much of the run time. The humour is a mix of the program doing its best to stop you, the user, from accessing it, as well as the program drawing attention to a myriad of gaming tropes, both modern and classic. Even mentioning the games, it pays homage to would spoil some of the surprises, although the trailer can give you some idea of what you’re in for.
While some of the comedy feels a tad cheesy, it also feels very earnest, poking fun at different genres while also serving as a love letter to some of the classics. It also does a great job at breaking the fourth wall and providing you with new silly ways to break the game. Being a game that puts so much into the humour, it runs the risk of either being over way too quickly or overstaying its welcome. Developers Draw Me A Pixel manages to nail a happy medium, where there is more than you expect but wraps up around the 4-5 hour mark depending on how you go with some of the puzzles.
Being a point and click game full of puzzles, chances are you might get stuck at some point. Don’t fret, TiNG has you covered. It comes with a helpful hint system, highlighting what element you need to interact with and provides multi-tier hints. These start relatively spoiler-free with just a nudge in the right direction. Then there is a short-timer before the next hint is revealed. It might not be the first game to have this kind of hint system, but it is always welcome and reduces the chances of tracking down a walkthrough.
I originally played TiNG on the PC, and it worked well enough with a mouse cursor, I missed out on the touchscreen versions, so I was in for a treat playing this on the Switch. The touch screen controls worked so well I wondered how I even managed on the PC, turns out traditional button controls work fine. If possible, I recommend using the Switch’s handheld mode for this game for that extra dimension.
There is No Game: Wrong Dimension is paradoxically a game that is a ray of light in what has been a pretty crappy year. Draw Me A Pixel have put together a game full of humour and heart while making you peel away layer after layer of the game onion. While I have been purposefully broad about the game’s contents, I recommend this game to any point and click fan or anyone who might enjoy a silly adventure and wants to play something nice.
Rating: 4.5/5
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