Intro

"A Vacation in Nebula" is a short walking simulator/puzzle game developed by Frogge using RPG Maker 2000 that was created for 1.44 Floppy Disc Drive event. An event that tasked developers with creating games that could fit within the confines of a single 3 and 1/2 inch floppy disk. And while some of the games from that event have been pretty good in my opinion. My feelings on this one are a lot more mixed. Partially because the nature of this game means it's all about the vibes and thus is all style and no substance in my opinion.

I suppose some would counter that the game reminds people they need to take a break and whatnot, but that's pretty standard advice. So much so I really don't feel like I needed a game to tell me that. At the same time the small size of this games means it was always going to be a bit light in terms of narrative so I'll try to look the other way, but I would have preferred a bare bones narrative over rescuing a princess from a massive ape over what we got here. Albeit I'm the odd one out if the other reviews are anything to go by.

Story
Summary

We play as nameless girl whose enjoying some time in a hot spring while fully clothed. Though why she still has her clothes on when the only other person nearby appears to be naked is anyone's guess. At least I didn't notice her wearing a towel while I was playing the game.



At any rate upon leaving the hot spring we decide to explore the rest of the famous Nebula Resort and gather up the seven suns needed to send us home. A number that may have been inspired by the seven magic Dragon Balls. Albeit gathering those suns is pretty chill with us only needing to solve a few simple puzzles along the way with most of the challenge being to just find all of the doorways in this game.

At any rate after exploring every possible passage it's now possible to go home and bring the game to a close. Of course you can always stay and stare at the purple rocks and be reminded of everyone's favorite singing T-Rex.

Gameplay

On the gameplay front you basically just wander around in this game and collect suns. There are a few simple puzzles involving sliding around gears into the right place, but these puzzles aren't that difficult. Albeit I had to reset on both of them.



On the first puzzle I knocked one of the gears into a spot that made moving it in impossible for reasons not even I can figure out. And in the second puzzle I solved some of the earlier gears too early. So I couldn't get the third gear into position. I also didn't notice that you could reset the gears by pressing the esc key and manually reset them by leaving and reentering the room both times. I guess I was too focused on the stuff within the frame to really pay attention to the words on the bottom of the screen. Regardless both options work though pressing the esc key is probably a lot faster.

Outside of the gear sliding puzzles there are also a couple of gears you need to turn in order to unlock some doors, but those gears are pretty easy to find if your willing to explore the various pathways that are accessible to the player. In fact, you'll probably find all of the suns in this game in under fifteen minutes. In fact, I beat this game in under twelve minutes on my first playthrough.

Graphics

On the graphical side of things the game features entirely custom assets as far as I can tell that are all varying shades of purple and blue. A choice that may or may not appeal to people. I suppose setting the world in cool colors is meant to help people chill out, but it just gets me thinking about other purple things like Grimace and Nidoking. Though I'll admit setting the world within the confines of a frame is pretty unique and helps the game stand out visually in a good way.

Sound

On the sound side of things the game features three pretty relaxing songs. Albeit those three songs blend together rather well. As such, I thought the game only included a single song and only realized I was mistaken about that when I opened up the game's music folder. The game also includes a few sound effects as well, but those are pretty standard fare as far as I can tell.

Conclusion

"A Vacation in Nebula" is a bit of an odd one for me to judge. On one hand I really wish this game gave the player a reason for hunting down the seven suns beyond they are there. I know that's enough for gamers to do all kinds of stupid things like trying to kill Cthulhu when he pops up, but taking down giant beasts is sort of staple of a lot of games. At the same time this project definitely does everything it was intended to do by Frogge and the quality of his execution of those ideas can't be denied. So while I'm not a big fan of this game I'm pretty much forced to give it a good score.