Automaton Lung

Automaton Lung has this compelling, unknowable mystique about. All the expected essentials of a classic game adventure are here – the platforming challenges, the collectibles, the power-ups, the exploration. And yet there’s always a sense of missing context, an intentional emptiness. That search for greater meaning bolsters the already liminal atmosphere. As a player you are made tensely aware of the role context and narrative play in feeling purpose and achievement. In their absence, the mind cannot help but attempt to create them. It’s role play in the wake of abstraction. In the game’s final moments that search takes on even greater weight – “if I leave this mortal coil I deserve to feel some pride”. The hollow disposition within Automaton Lung is best appreciated on its native platform, the 3DS, as navigating its unnatural, abstract terrain mirrored the uncanny emptiness which came with navigating the 3DS eShop in its dying days, a barren landscape which felt desert...

Feels more like a strange experiment than anything. Originally designed as an indie game developed for 3DS, it's a super rigid platformer with weird ambient lands and amazing, otherworldy music. No text, no story, only the counter for the number of "chips" you collect in each stage. You start in a tower, but soon find a ship and fly around a strange world collecting chips and picking up new weapons. The shooting isn't bad, but the platforming is super rigid and annoying. The camera actively works against you as you collect each chip and progress to the next area. The whole game is open at the start, but you need a certain number of chips to access the final boss. She has a jetpack and can take out a futuristic hoverboard that handles like garbage but is still fun to use. Once you defeat the final boss, you go through a weird chase sequence and kill a seizure-inducing second final boss before she flies off and becomes a ball of fire with no explanation. On one hand, it's a subpar platf...