Whilst very tired one morning in early-mid March (yes, shortly after I prepared yesterday’s article), I was randomly watching Youtube.
As well as stumbling across this cool guitar video, I suddenly remembered the “Alpha Beta Gamer” channel (warning – horror imagery) and stumbled across footage of a free game from 2024 called “Crusty Proto” by 3DI70R and Tihan and I just had to play it! It’s a comedy-horror game 🙂
This game was made in a week for a competition called “Shroom Jam”. Was it made on shrooms? Probably not, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
The developers describe it thusly: “Unknown incomplete and glitchy game, with build date roughly around 1997, found in a pack of CD bought in a garage lot. It tries to mimic Resident Evil very hard, as it was big hit at the time.”
This review may contain SPOILERS. The game itself contains FLICKER (eg: rapid, glitchy movements). Click on the screenshots to see a larger version.
It’s a shop, not a mansion. 100% Original idea. Do not steal.
One of the first things that I will say about this short game is that it is laugh-out-loud funny 🙂 It plays like a classic 1990s “Resident Evil” game but with all sorts of hilarious “glitches”, error messages and random stuff. And, yes, this is very much a comedy game rather than a survival horror game.
Not only do you have infinite ammo and infinite inventory space but you also, seemingly, have infinite health as well. There’s no saving system, but it’s a very short game. Whilst there are some mild “jump scares”, there is none of the suspense or resource management you’d expect from a serious survival horror game. And it doesn’t matter because this game is just too funny!
And, yes, most of the hilarious glitches can be traced back to exactly one developer called Matt…
Whether it is the constant arguments between the developers in the error messages. Whether it is the glitched-out zombies. Whether it is how the developers haven’t coded in a fail state, so you can just sort of caterpillar the main character’s mortal remains over to the door and then just return to normal in the next room.
Whether it is the random “Carmageddon”-inspired driving segment. I could go on. If you’re a classic survival horror fan, then this game will literally make you laugh out loud.
And, yes, this is supposed to be a driving section. The 3D model for the car is, of course, stuck back in the garage because of a parent process error or something…
Yes, for practical reasons, this game uses fully 3D environments and a fluid fixed camera – rather than the pre-rendered background and static camera of the original “Resident Evil” (1996). But, for something made in a week, it absolutely nails the atmosphere of the original “Resident Evil”. Everything from the ominous music, to the wallpaper in one of the hallways, to the parody of that game’s opening cutscene, it is still surprisingly evocative of the original “Resident Evil”.
Seriously, for something made by two people in a week – for a laugh – the atmosphere and music here is weirdly accurate…
The controls are pretty much what you’d expect if you’ve played the original “Resident Evil”. And, if you grew up with it, then this style of gameplay is just inherently fun in its own right – even in a silly parody game. Especially in a silly parody game.
There isn’t really a huge amount more that I can say about this game without spoiling even more of the jokes. It’s only about ten minutes or so long, and it’s very much a comedy-horror game rather than any sort of serious survival horror game. But it’s hilariously funny and, for something made in just one week, it’s ridiculously impressive. Plus, it amazes me that – these days – two people can make a silly parody game in a week that would have taken a professional team of developers in the 1990s months or years to make. Truly, we live in the future.
If I had to give it a rating out of five, it would get a five. Comedy gold.
