Text adventures make up some of the earliest commercialized video games. With nothing more than the power of words, choice, and pixelated artistry, the genre was a smash hit in the 1980s, long before the video game market was full of FPS titles and RPGs. It’s in that essence that these adventures can still breathe life anew nearly forty years later. LCB Game Studio seeks to bring the magic back with a line of “Pixel Pulps”, spooky stories with a nostalgic flair. Just how well did this endeavor kick off?

Mothmen 1966 is the first in the Pixel Pulps series. It has the premise of encounters with the creepy cryptids in the mid-1960s during a real-life meteor shower by the name of the Leonids. The Leonids spawn a supernatural phenomenon that is so bonkers that my jaw dropped they revealed the final showdown that would take place near the end of this short story. In the meantime, there’s plenty of background and lore to get players into the fascinating storyline.

Any players familiar with visual novels will be relieved to hear that Mothmen 1966 has all the bells and whistles needed to make for an enjoyable experience. There are two ways to skip text (both quickly and slowly) whilst stopping to make your choices that impact the story. The former came in handy when I forgot there was a save feature and accidentally got sent to the menu after a rough encounter with some coyotes. While having to replay several chapters sounds daunting, the skip feature meant I only missed a few minutes of gameplay.

What makes Mothmen 1966 a stellar game to play is its ability to immerse the player with top-notch illustrations/animations and its use of sound in both bone-shivering music and bit-crushed sound effects. Cranking up the bass in my haptic headphones meant the bark of a dog and the wings of the eponymous Mothmen made for an unsettling setting. The time and effort put into the presentation make the story beats pop out and have more impact than they would if they were merely presented in the text.

When you do have control of the “action”, you’ll have to make choices paramount to your survival. One wrong move and you’re out for the count. Thankfully, you can immediately replay sections and not lose much time at all. The puzzles are definitely brain-teasers but are easy enough to solve without warranting any stress. Whenever I felt stuck, I just tried the puzzle from a new approach and was rewarded with a pleasant jingle once solved.

If Mothmen 1966 is any indication of how well these Pixel Pulps are going to be, I’m fully on board and ready for more. While it’s a brief 1-2 hour affair, I found myself pausing and reading up on the lore merely because I was so interested. There’s a demo for the next game that LCB Game Studio is working on in the main menu, and I know for sure I’ll be playing that once the time comes. For now, Mothmen 1966 is a must for adventure game/visual novel fans.

A PC review key for Mothmen 1966 was provided by Chorus Worldwide for this review.

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Mothmen 1966

$8.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Gripping Story
• Excellent Immersion
• Worth Replaying

Cons

• Interactive Bits Slightly Frustrating