There’s a skit in the legendary Chappelle’s Show where Arsenio Hall finds himself at a wine and cheese party. When he tastes the cheese and discovers how good it is, he immediately starts questioning why no one told him how good the cheese was. And then he starts slapping people. This is how I feel about Helheim Hassle and Manual Samuel, the other two games in Perfectly Paranormal’s “Tuesday Trilogy.” These are some good-ass games, how come y’all didn’t tell me how good these games were?
I reviewed the most recent game in the trilogy, The Holy Gosh Darn, and had nothing but good things to say about it. The humor and gameplay were a perfect match, and both Helheim Hassle and Manual Samuel follow that tradition but in totally different ways.
PUT ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER IN ‘MANUAL SAMUEL’
I don’t know what I expected when I fired Manual Samuel up for the first time, but it blew me away. The story starts with Samuel, who is floating by on his father’s money and is generally aloof. He forgets his girlfriend’s birthday, and his punishment is her knocking him out. When he awakes, he discovers he was hit so hard that he has to relearn how to walk.
As he heads out into the street, he’s killed by an oncoming truck. He ends up in hell and this is where Death makes a deal with him: he can be brought back to life if he goes 24 hours doing everything manually. This includes walking, blinking, breathing, staying upright, and a couple other things I won’t spoil.
Perfectly Paranormal nails one very important thing: it’s not overly long. The concept is unique, but it’s one that requires a great deal of button pressing and memory. It took me a little under two hours to finish, which is the sweet spot for what you’re asked to do. But those two hours are hilarious. Once you get the hang of the controls, the various ways in which forgetting to do one thing affects the gameplay are pretty cool.
‘HELHEIM HASSLE’ IS THE GAME THAT WOULD MAKE HUSTLE MAN PROUD
I sincerely hope people get that reference. Helheim Hassle is a puzzle platformer where you play as Bjorn, a Viking who wants to do anything but be a Viking. In his quest to avoid seeing Valhalla, he finds himself dead and able to detach his limbs from his body. With Pesto (Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen) by his side, he attempts to journey to Helheim to rest in peace.
I played this game last. And by this point, I’ve come to expect Perfectly Paranormal to bring the laughs and the unique gameplay. You spend your time solving various puzzles by detaching and throwing your limbs or combining them to create some hellish version of yourself. There’s also a demon bear who apparently hit the lottery in death. That is literally all the explanation you’re getting on that one.
The hook here is that you don’t just take your arm off and throw it. Though that is an option. You can also detach both arms and your head from your body, then join them together to climb faster than you would as a complete body. There are an insane amount of combinations and they all have their own physical attributes. And the puzzles are designed to take full advantage of all of it.
JUST GET ALL THREE GAMES, YOU WON’T regret it
The time I’ve spent playing all three games has been some of the most fun I’ve had playing video games. Calling them the “Tuesday Trilogy” isn’t just some Steam description buzzword. These games are truly connected in ways that blow my mind hours after being done with them.
There’s a section in The Holy Gosh Darn that involves a board meeting that is directly connected to Manual Samuel. You get to understand Bjorn a bit more from his Gosh Darn cameo in Helheim Hassle. And best of all, seeing exactly how the problem in Gosh Darn started with Manual Samuel makes it even funnier.
I’ve been ranting and raving about these games since I finished the trilogy. I called Holy Gosh Darn a playable Adult Swim series, and that fits for all three games. I’m now even more confident that this is a world that needs exploring and expanding. Play the “Tuesday Trilogy,” I promise you won’t regret it.
The post The Remaining Perfectly Paranormal Games Have Turned Me Into Arsenio Hall, and I’m Looking For Someone to Slap appeared first on VICE.
