12/28/2021

Review of I can't carry all these Ducks
Developed by: mokesmoe
2014, PC

Game Screen

In my compulsion to write about most of the games I play, I'm reviewing I can't carry all these Ducks. You can play the game here, and it will only take you a minute. It only taking a minute makes writing about the game a little ridiculous, while the only thing more ridiculous is that I'm going to say something critical about it, and take it more seriously than probably anyone is interested in.

You don't play along with the joke, is my issue with I can't carry all these Ducks. You carry the first duck automatically and walk to the side of the screen, and then the joke happens. There's no involvement from you, and the effect of the game would be the same if you watched it happen without controlling it. I think interaction is as important for a game to have an effect on you as tension is in a film, and this doesn't have it. If you had to catch the first duck, or carry it but it was a little bit off balance and then a couple more levels added ducks until it was impossibly difficult, then I think I would like the joke more. It would feel like you were tricked into thinking you could carry ducks but you couldn't, and of course that would change the game into something else, maybe something that's a little more mean-spirited than this, which is why it's not really helpful for me to make suggestions on someone else's fundamental design. It would also make the game longer, and its shortness is the best thing about it.

Another short joke game where you only press one button is Michael Brough's Reverse Passage (7.5). It's a parody of the game Passage (5) where instead of walking right and getting older, you hold down the left arrow to experience a "life metaphor". From my understanding, it's a joke about how Passage had these really heavy-handed themes that you were supposed to connect with by basically pressing one button. Pressing one button in Reverse Passage works because the joke is about you doing only that, but in I can't carry all these Ducks only pressing one button is like a Quick Time Event in an action game that stands in for any involvement from the player.