This 'edutainment horror' game that just released on Steam is creeping me out
The way kids' show characters like Dora the Explorer pause for responses as if they can hear all the five-year-olds shouting at them is mildly unsettling, and probably contributes to the confused notions kids sometimes have about television. The ones that lead to questions like: Can they see me?
Amanda the Adventurer(opens in new tab), a «found footage edutainment horror» game that released on Steam this week, exploits that creepiness by having us watch and respond to VHS tapes of a made-up kids show starring a little girl named Amanda, who in the first episode bakes a pie without parental supervision despite the protests of her poor little friend, a Wooly the sheep.
Amanda of course does the Dora thing, where she asks you, the viewer, for advice. Except that when she asks something, such as what to cut apples with, you have to type in the correct answer or she won't continue: K-N-I-F-E.
It's not exactly a subtle way to introduce the show's sinister supernatural essence—I'm thinking this isn't gonna be high horror for connoisseurs of only the nichest of New French Extremity—but I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to $9 horror games. Mild creepiness is what I signed up for and what I'm getting. I haven't played past that first episode, but I'm going to assume things escalate from there, and Amanda the Adventurer currently has very positive Steam user reviews.
When you're not interacting with the show, you're stuck in your dead aunt's attic in a standard escape room setup: surrounded by combination locks and clocks whose times probably need to be set to some special number (murder o'clock, maybe). Like so many games of this variety, it's a little reminiscent of classic horror adventure game The 7th Guest(opens in new
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