Little Inferno
Burn My Dread
85/100 (B+)
Positives:
- Striking visual style: adorable, yet unsettling
- Relaxing: Burning stuff is always fun
- Surprisingly deep story if you beat the whole game
- Clever, tongue-in-cheek satire
Negatives:
- Narrative doesn't really come into play until the final third of the game
- Shipping items takes a long time (for good reasons, but it's still annoying)
- Some combos are very difficult to find, making it hard to reach the game's end without Google
Little Inferno is one of those rare Indie gems that truly deserves to be called "groundbreaking" or "innovative". I've never played a game quite so simple yet satisfying as Little Inferno; setting everything from teddy bears to televisions on fire and watching the results is just somehow deeply gratifying for the pyromanic in all of us. The game's art style is also one of the most interesting in recent memory: almost everything in Little Inferno is adorable, but it's the Alice in Wonderland variety of adorable, where something is just slightly off or holding something sinister just below the surface of the cutesy exterior. Little Inferno wins big points just for creativity; it's hard to make a game that's creepy, cute, simple, and entertaining all at once.
If you look beyond the gameplay and visuals, though, Little Inferno is beautifully satirical and sends a strong message, though I'll refrain from spoiling any major details of the plot. One of the things that makes me love Little Inferno is HOW it handles its satire. Some games in recent memory such as The Stanley Parable have taken a satirical angle on gaming and its conventions, but often times, it feels very in-your-face about its message, as if its trying too hard to be edgy and deep. Little Inferno, on the other hand, lets the satire speak for itself. It doesn't try to shove its message in the player's face: if you play the game to completion and pay attention to all the events leading to the conclusion, most players will understand the message, even though it wasn't explicitly outlined as a "message".
While the story and "message" are absolutely ones I believe are worth experiencing, some players (including myself) may become easily frustrated with some of the game's conventions. The game's story in particular isn't really brought to the foreground until the final parts of the game, so if you're playing for the story exclusively, you may have to wait a bit. Additionally, the game's burnable items take time to ship to you, which can be annoying (but take my word for it, the shipping wait times have significance in the plot as a whole, so they're worth slogging through for the game's conclusion). The shipping problem is also slightly alleviated by the instant-arrival stamps you occasionally get by burning things.
The game's conclusion is only unlocked by successfully burning all 99 item combos together. These combos can take a long time to find on your own, so if you're looking to finish the game quickly, I would honestly recommend using Google. The ending of Little Inferno is just too good to pass up; getting all the combos is just an entertaining vehicle for getting to it.
Link to the "Little Inferno" site, if you're interested!
- Striking visual style: adorable, yet unsettling
- Relaxing: Burning stuff is always fun
- Surprisingly deep story if you beat the whole game
- Clever, tongue-in-cheek satire
Negatives:
- Narrative doesn't really come into play until the final third of the game
- Shipping items takes a long time (for good reasons, but it's still annoying)
- Some combos are very difficult to find, making it hard to reach the game's end without Google
Little Inferno is one of those rare Indie gems that truly deserves to be called "groundbreaking" or "innovative". I've never played a game quite so simple yet satisfying as Little Inferno; setting everything from teddy bears to televisions on fire and watching the results is just somehow deeply gratifying for the pyromanic in all of us. The game's art style is also one of the most interesting in recent memory: almost everything in Little Inferno is adorable, but it's the Alice in Wonderland variety of adorable, where something is just slightly off or holding something sinister just below the surface of the cutesy exterior. Little Inferno wins big points just for creativity; it's hard to make a game that's creepy, cute, simple, and entertaining all at once.
If you look beyond the gameplay and visuals, though, Little Inferno is beautifully satirical and sends a strong message, though I'll refrain from spoiling any major details of the plot. One of the things that makes me love Little Inferno is HOW it handles its satire. Some games in recent memory such as The Stanley Parable have taken a satirical angle on gaming and its conventions, but often times, it feels very in-your-face about its message, as if its trying too hard to be edgy and deep. Little Inferno, on the other hand, lets the satire speak for itself. It doesn't try to shove its message in the player's face: if you play the game to completion and pay attention to all the events leading to the conclusion, most players will understand the message, even though it wasn't explicitly outlined as a "message".
While the story and "message" are absolutely ones I believe are worth experiencing, some players (including myself) may become easily frustrated with some of the game's conventions. The game's story in particular isn't really brought to the foreground until the final parts of the game, so if you're playing for the story exclusively, you may have to wait a bit. Additionally, the game's burnable items take time to ship to you, which can be annoying (but take my word for it, the shipping wait times have significance in the plot as a whole, so they're worth slogging through for the game's conclusion). The shipping problem is also slightly alleviated by the instant-arrival stamps you occasionally get by burning things.
The game's conclusion is only unlocked by successfully burning all 99 item combos together. These combos can take a long time to find on your own, so if you're looking to finish the game quickly, I would honestly recommend using Google. The ending of Little Inferno is just too good to pass up; getting all the combos is just an entertaining vehicle for getting to it.
Link to the "Little Inferno" site, if you're interested!
If you look beyond the gameplay and visuals, though, Little Inferno is beautifully satirical and sends a strong message, though I'll refrain from spoiling any major details of the plot. One of the things that makes me love Little Inferno is HOW it handles its satire. Some games in recent memory such as The Stanley Parable have taken a satirical angle on gaming and its conventions, but often times, it feels very in-your-face about its message, as if its trying too hard to be edgy and deep. Little Inferno, on the other hand, lets the satire speak for itself. It doesn't try to shove its message in the player's face: if you play the game to completion and pay attention to all the events leading to the conclusion, most players will understand the message, even though it wasn't explicitly outlined as a "message".
While the story and "message" are absolutely ones I believe are worth experiencing, some players (including myself) may become easily frustrated with some of the game's conventions. The game's story in particular isn't really brought to the foreground until the final parts of the game, so if you're playing for the story exclusively, you may have to wait a bit. Additionally, the game's burnable items take time to ship to you, which can be annoying (but take my word for it, the shipping wait times have significance in the plot as a whole, so they're worth slogging through for the game's conclusion). The shipping problem is also slightly alleviated by the instant-arrival stamps you occasionally get by burning things.
The game's conclusion is only unlocked by successfully burning all 99 item combos together. These combos can take a long time to find on your own, so if you're looking to finish the game quickly, I would honestly recommend using Google. The ending of Little Inferno is just too good to pass up; getting all the combos is just an entertaining vehicle for getting to it.
Link to the "Little Inferno" site, if you're interested!
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