Ben There, Dan That

Graphic adventure are, to be sure, among the few game styles that actually do humor well -- but when you come to down to it, a lot of the games that try to recreate the humor of Monkey Island or Grim Fandango don't quite hit. Oh, they're jocular enough, but it doesn't quite work -- a smile at best. Yes, yes, we know, dying is easy and comedy is hard, but I can't remember the last game I played that actually made me laugh out loud. Ben There, Dan That did.

Dan is Dan Marshall, creator of Gibbage, and Ben Ward a friend; Gibbage is a two-player sidescrolling deathmatch, and BTDT is an adventure game studio game, so you know, totally unlike one another (though Gibbage has its humorous aspects -- maybe that's the commonality here). They've put themselves in the game -- you play as Ben, with Dan following you about (both characters with a charmingly awkward walk cycle), making snarky comments, and occasionally proving useful (he's willing to do things Ben won't).

The very first thing you encounter in the game is an odd set piece that will instantly tickle any experienced adventure gamer: Ben is standing near a bottomless chasm, with Dan dead, tied to a rope over the chasm, with a duck on his head, wearing roller skates. Ben tells you about how he managed to get the rope, the duck, the roller skates, and all the other elements he needs to shoot Dan across the cavern so he can be reanimated by some scientist on the other side -- a completely absurd set-up, and a typically idiotic solution to an inane adventure gaming puzzle. But you don't have to solve it; it's already been solved. (Well, there's one minor puzzle element you have to complete the finish the scene, and get to the credits and the real game.)

This is only the beginning of an truly funny self-referential game that is sardonically aware of the tropes of the genre and plays off then every chance it can. Sure there are puzzles, and some are fairly obscure (though not patently idiotic), but no one used to the genre will have too much problem, since the number of inventory items, possible combinations, and so on are fairly straightforward. (Except for that damn biblical puzzle, which I still don't understand, but, anyway, one four six highlight for spoiler.)

This is smartness, dialog, and sheer chutzpah at a professional level that leaves almost everything that gets commercially published in the genre today in its shade, all in a freeware little indie game. I've gone so far as to call Dave Gilbert a genius in the past, but these guys are as good or better, and funnier to boot.

I have only two regrets: One, I wish it were longer, only because I enjoyed it enough that I didn't want it to end. Two -- and perhaps I'm trained by Dave's games here, but somehow the presence or absence of voice acting, for graphic adventures, signals the difference between amateur and professional. I want voice, and not just text. Yet I may be an obscure minority in this regard; certainly the graphics are amateurish, too, and yet for me that says "artistic choice" not "amateur." I mean, does anyone compare Pixar animation to South Park? And if so, why?