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Sacred Reviews: Jack's Forehead Surgery

Intro

"Jack's Forehead Surgery" is a short comedy game developed by asdfJosh using RPG Maker VX Ace and appears to be the only game he/she/dark green ever submitted to this site. Though, I suppose that isn't that surprising since it looks like asdfJosh disappeared within a month or two of posting this game here. As for why they left I can only speculate so it's probably best to move on. Besides the more interesting topic of speculation for me would by why someone deleted his/her review for this game. In fact, the only reason I know this game used to have a review is because I flipped through asdfJosh's posts to see when they were last active and his/her/dark green post was on a review for this game on February 24th, 2016. Though, I suppose probably stop exploring this rabbit hole and move onto discussing the story that drives this comedy game.

Story

You play as a man whose decided to go in for forehead reduction surgery, but it turns out that your surgeon's practice is on top of an old nuclear waste dump and the radiation particles have turned some of the local wildlife into hideous monsters that like to annoy Dr. Green and Dr. Crawford by stealing their medical equipment. So in order to get your much needed forehead reduction surgery your going to need to plunge into the depths of this nuclear waste facility in order to get their supplies back. A task that is pretty easy since this a comedy game and were supposed to laugh at the absurdity of the final boss monster from the RTP stealing a scalpel from medical professionals of questionable quality.



Though, I guess the main character appreciates their efforts. I think I'd prefer death over looking like that. Though, I suppose looking like that might still be better than the humiliation the final boss suffers.



After all, the only thing I can assume happens is that the final boss literally pukes itself to death after being fed the moldy bread. Admittedly this isn't the only game to feature lethal bread as an item, but if this is specifically meant to be a nod to the player's ability to kill Lord British with poisoned bread in one of the games in the Ultima series isn't know to me.

Comedy

As I've mentioned previously the comedic appeal of games like this are very hard to judge since comedy is sometimes audience specific. So if you'll find this game funny or not is difficult to say. I'd say it's mildly funny at best since I'm not a big fan of the style being deployed by asdfJosh which comes across as random LOL humor at times.



While other parts seem like they are meant to be funny because of how bad the setup for a fight or event is. After all, how can the above series of events inspire anyone to take on a giant mutant?

Gameplay

You basically move between events and use a couple of items or objects on the map in order to advance the plot. So there really isn't that much gameplay to be had here in my opinion, but I suppose the whole point of this game is to move through this game's weird storyline as quickly as possible. So the player having very limited options on what they can do does make sense if you want your comedic game to be beaten in 25 to 30 minutes.

Graphics

The game includes a few original face sets but that's it. And these original face sets really don't match the look of the RTP face sets in the slightest. I suppose one could argue that this issue is just one of the many jokes. Though, I'm not sure why this contrast is funny.



If anything I find it annoying since it makes the few non-RTP assets in this game stick out and makes me think of "Santa Quest" by ambulancefactory. Which isn't a good thing considering I thought that game was so shitty that it wasn't even worth Let's Playing and I've played some bad RPG Maker games over the years.

Sound

Outside of the music on the title screen the game's soundtrack is entirely comprised of tracks from the RTP as far as I can tell. So this game really doesn't stand out that much in this area. After all, there isn't anything wrong with the RTP music. It's just that someone whose played as many RPG Maker VX Ace games as I have definitely likes to see something different in this area. After all, I've heard the RTP tracks a lot over the years.

Conclusion

This is a hard one for me to rate since I really don't find this game that funny, but it's also not that long so even if you think it flops around like a dying fish on a sandy beach. It's not like that fish will have enough time to go bad by the time you've completed the game. So you don't have to worry about the unbearable stench of rotting fish filling your nostrils, but this is definitely one you'll have to play or not play on your own terms.