I’ve executed some elementary research of the planet Jupiter for varied inventive analysis initiatives/dead-ends. It is most likely a symptom of my failings as an astronomer, however I’ve to say that at no level have I observed any gigantic, depressed clowns. In new platformer Clown Meat, one such gigantic, depressed clown has swum by means of Jupiter’s ambiance, drifted to Earth and kicked off some form of meatpunk apocalypse, saturating the encircling countryside with circus-themed abominations.
You play a a lot, a lot smaller clown, born inside after which cruelly ripped from a hill of festering clownflesh by a pair of huge speaking clown fingers. What are you born into this dreadful world to do? Cheer the massive clown up, the speaking clown fingers clarify. How are you to do that? Effectively, it begins with a collection of murderous platforming challenges that includes gaseous proto-clowns who can ghost by means of surfaces, hissing clown lampreys and horrible, off-white clown tumours that kill you on contact. There are additionally many spike pits and deadfalls, which appear downright healthful within the context.
Clown Meat Reveal Trailer
Your purpose in every stage is to succeed in a kind of motherly clown fingers, with quicker completion instances leading to happier clown faces on a rating graph that resembles a funfair strength-testing machine. In between these vicious stabs of platforming, you will communicate to and maybe, entertain a spread of monstrous facet characters. “Carry a smile to the withered and wretched faces of humanity,” explains the Steam web page. “Meet different bio-clowns, communicate to creatures of whispering fingers, converse with juggernauts of nasal tentacles, you by no means know who your viewers may be.”
There is a demo for Clown Meat on Itch and Steam. I had a play over the weekend, and whereas it typically simply seems like Tremendous Meat Boy with completely different artwork, I like absolutely the full-bore mankiness of the setting – the overall dedication to a world constituted of and devoted to the abject distress of clowns. The clown hand characters remind me a bit of of the Primordial Serpents from Darkish Souls, and in addition of Nova’s goddess-moms in Anodyne 2: Return To Mud. The surroundings, in the meantime, consists of some off-colour “anti-Pollish” graffiti, which developer Talia bob Mair has described as each an occasion of in-world racism and a cheeky nod to Polish followers of their earlier video games.
Bob Mair’s earlier initiatives – all collaborations, all “for nobody”, all fairly well-reviewed – are simply as splendidly icky. There’s Brutal Orchestra, which is a turn-based roguelike set in Hell and that includes a demon referred to as Bosch. Heatstroke, in the meantime, is an limitless desert street sim during which you juggle driving with transcribing – as in, actually retyping – a deranged brief story. After which there’s Swallow The Sea, during which you’re an egg wobbling round a diseased ocean, consuming different mobile creatures to extend your measurement and finally, get born.
This is how Natalie Clayton (RPS in peace) characterised Swallow The Sea again in 2020. “Spindly eels lash at you from behind rocks, despondent urchins drift lazily into your passages. Vile worms snap at you, pulling at their very own pores and skin to drag at your membrane with their naked cranium. However hey, they’ve all obtained cute names like “Ubb” and “Nooty”. It ain’t all dangerous below the ocean.” Clown Meat is the same combination of macabre and buoyant. The world may appear to be the contents of a dumpster shared by a butcher and a flowery gown store, however I really feel surprisingly affectionate in direction of the terrible mutant harlequin on the centre of all of it. Remember, the premise of this recreation is to cheer anyone up.
Clown Meat is because of launch this yr. “Discover 40+ extremely replayable ranges!” continues the Steam blurb. “From the crumbling stays of Seattle draped in carnival lights to the burning ocean of trash that Vancouver has grow to be, and the entire horrible scalding deserts of business and waste in-between. Discover locations you by no means thought attainable, and discover a cause to giggle, even within the darkest corners of existence.” I am going to take it.
