GABALL SCREEN: SHOE

---

tetsuya komuro: pop legend. subject of divorce and twink death. person who won't respond to my emails. whether it was the speed 2 soundtrack, ayumi homasa's works, or persona 4 dance remixes on youtube, you've likely heard his music somewhere. after all, he's the most successful producer in japanese music history. so it was only natural that we'd recieve an art game about his shoe.

wait what?

yet again i hafta thank cj for the hookup on this one. gaball screen comes courtesy of my (new) second-favorite dev studio, system sacom. the setup is simple: fly komuro's shoe around in janky 3d rooms and click objects to play animations. play the "right" animations and you'll collect a cd. it's got a lot in common with the likes of 90s entertainment suites or a lucasarts point n click - minus the puzzles. real cozy and dreamlike. anyway, the cds unlock instruments in real-time that combine to form ADORABLE midi tunes. this simple mechanic makes every space lively and rewarding to explore. even better is that all the midis are renditions of collabs between komuro and cool japanese bands, which are all EXCLUSIVE to gaball screen. finally, a game that makes good on that age-old joke of "this album comes with a game"!

i love 90s j-pop, i love midi versions of real songs, i love childlike wonderment, i love surreal nanaon-sha-esque humor, and i LOVE hanging out in colorful little rinkadink 5th gen spaces. there's a hub world for literally 0 functional reason. isn't that awesome? though many will write this off as another "wacky japanese moment" or ps1 licensed drivel for youtubers to pad their video runtimes with, gaball screen is straight-up beautiful in my eyes. there's no excuse not to play it. explorable album. the kid a exhibition can bite me

END GAME REVIEW