Horace

Horace is an ambitious 2D platforming adventure that combines challenging movement, puzzle-solving, retro-inspired mini-games, and an unexpectedly substantial narrative. Developed by Paul Helman and Sean Scaplehorn and published by 505 Games, it uses a charming pixel-art appearance to tell a story considerably larger and more emotional than its presentation initially suggests. Rather than relying entirely on nostalgia, the game builds a distinctive identity around an innocent robot gradually learning about humanity, relationships, responsibility, and the strange world surrounding him. The story follows Horace as he develops from a simple machine with a limited understanding of life into a much more capable and emotionally aware character. Seeing events through his straightforward perspective gives the narrative much of its humor and personality. The adventure frequently shifts between comedy and surprisingly serious material, exploring friendship, family, separation, loss, and personal purpose. Numerous references to classic games, films, television, music, and British popular culture are woven throughout the experience. Some references are deliberately obvious, while others funct…

It was ok as a platformer, but the cut scenes were a slog. They weren't even bad cutscenes, I just didn't have the patience for them.

Lovely, just lovely...... ....untill I got to the Tournament mini games. I was so bad at those, I could not get further. Such a shame that the dumb minigames made it a dissapointing ending.

If you are afraid of the British, then you should consider this a survival horror game. Horace is seeping in charm and pop culture references (the good kind), although I feel is held back by some gameplay. The cutscenes I feel are the best part about the game, though they may not be for everyone. Horace and the loveable cast of characters are all spoken for by a text-to-speech program, and while that may seem like an odd choice, it absolutely adds to the charm of the cutscenes. The quality of the cutscenes is not what makes them great, as they are relatively low budget. It is instead the writing and humour found within the cutscenes that make them excel. It often feels like you are watching a sitcom, and given the amount of references to sitcom's in this game, that's probably what they were aiming for. The music itself, most of it (from what I gathered) is remixes of classical music. I quite enjoyed the majority of these more video game-y esque renditions of songs you recognise. In between the episodical cutscenes, there's a game. Unbeknownst to me going in, this is a platformer game, and quite a difficult one at that. Some checkpoints can be forgiving, but rooms in the game…

Platformer game about the robot so good it can convince someone to actually like the British.

NOI8CE