vibes as all hell. The mere existence of this game is kinda subversive imo. The harolds walk guy still making his neat little explorative games on 3DS when the eshop was about to close and the switch was on its fifth year of life really just says something, yanno?

A lot of what I said about harolds walk can be said here except things are done in a grander scale here. Just this gigantic bizarre world populated with nothing but collectables, with no explanation on what to do, where to go, or what anything means, really. Despite the absolute lack of any direction, the game does a good job still making its primary objective of collecting all the things in the levels rather clear. It's one of those games that lets you do things however you want, and I liked that kind of freedom as I just took in the various different levels n setpieces as I found things along the way.

The game is no longer available on the 3DS itself but there's a steam version that I bought anyways to support my boy Luke Vincent. Given the fact that this is an extremely late 3DS title compounded by the visuals being like better-than-PS1-but-not-quite-like-dreamcast in quality, I don't know if the vibes particularly translate to the PC environment. But its def better to have the game still available somewhere rather than have it be stuck on a dead platform, plus its better to support one-man projects like this in any way possible. Give it a try!

I really liked this game, especially from the context of being one of the very last 3DS games to ever release on the system. And my what a run it was. Let me elaborate:

I remember picking up this console back in 2013 with a friend from Canada who was visiting the US at the time. We didn’t have much money, but we wanted a 3DS and we wanted to play Fire Emblem Awakening. I spent over $200 of my $400 bank account on the bright, shiny purple version and one game. We stayed up many late nights dicking around with our new systems, checking out our first Fire Emblem game, and making priceless memories. Real bookmark life events.

My experience with the 3DS is very deep, perhaps deeper than even I realized now that the console’s support is officially sunsetting effective March 27th, 2023. It’s where I learned that Nintendo actually has some pretty good games, and that I don’t need to shoot things all the time. It’s where I learned that Monster Hunter can suck up 100s of hours during a lazy summer. It’s what I spent countless hours, evenings, morning, and days off from work playing while getting invested in Game Grumps and the wider world of YouTube.

The 3DS defined very specific, important moments in my life, even if I would throw the console away for months at a time, maybe even years.

And now I’m bookending it with Automaton Lung.

That’s not to say I won’t still be playing this wonderful handheld—hell, I may be playing more than ever in the past 10 years now that I have a proper job and have stocked up more games than I care to count prior to the eshop shutdown. But in terms of raw, new experiences with the handheld I can safely say that this is the kind of game I’m glad took the mantle of “last to release on the 3DS”.

It’s something I’ll likely not forget in my gaming career, ever. I’m not even sure I understood it: why is it called Automaton Lung? Was it going for a 1998 vaporware feel, or was it a development limitation? What was I collecting, and why? What was the goal? Did the end mean anything—was I even supposed to close the game when I “beat” it? What am I killing, what am I flying, who am I, and why can’t I hit pause?

I walked away with more questions than answer, but I think that’s what I needed both as a capital G Gamer and a footnote to this legendary console. Not an expansive RPG, not a soap opera story, no dialogue or tutorials or even a menu to speak of. Just an artist’s raw energy and impeccable release timing.

could never get into minecraft tbh bc I think that shit ugly and also bc I’m not creative in that specific kind of way but this kind of made me understand the appeal of games like that. was already heavily vibing w this and then put in cheats and that kind of like broke the game and also my brain momentarily. it’s like very janky and kind of clunky but in a good way before cheats (u get killed by just about anything and traversal is honestly a bitch) but after cheats it allows u to freely explore these worlds. worlds that before felt so big and made you feel so small now are the opposite. it’s cool stuff and I love the interiors and how maze like or labrynth-y they feel, really reminded me of the early hours of drakengard that I’ve played and lots of the outdoor areas reminded me of like the vehicle segments in half life 2. also one of those games that def doesn’t have a real ending and kind of just allows to explore as much as you want, you can get out as much as u put in and when you’ve decided you’ve seen enough you can just move on with your life, I love stuff like that.

🧀〽️🎨✴️🛹🌐💠✈️🛗🌀

bless this block of brutalist swiss cheese. running through abandoned airport gates and skating for miles across impossible tree canopies is something i didn’t know i was missing in my heart.

as i figure out my final 3DS library choices, adding this game into the dreamcast themed shelf rounds out the shape of how the console feels to hold in my hands and spin in my mind. it carries with it subspace ghost towns that can never become something more.

and yet, here, they can just be—loosely guided along by waypoint collectibles & the bustle of unknowable enemies. guiding words are stripped away to let the player find out if they want to play here, to learn a bit more as they go. it’s unpolished & opaque, but considered enough that it never feels rushed to me. i get to ask myself what could be if we designed games with a purpose that doesn’t need to be known. i like the answers that come out.

in a lineup that is bite sized and structured (asked by its handheld mold), automaton lung gives the 3DS a liminal labyrinth that acts as a holographic swan song, a gem that will shine brightest on its tiny lenticular screen.

One of those games that are somewhat familiar to the hands but refresh the eyes and mind

-One of the last games on a dead Nintendo platform is a collection of unfinished levels, featuring a gameworld that seems to somehow fit a dead Metroid. Well, not dead, an unborn Metroid Prime more like. A copy with no original. An untimely and unborn digital world, a simulation of the worst for those who want to create video games in an industry that demands results and for those who are looking for content and hours of play. throws some sensations that I had with those that already existed in the 80s (Zelda, Xanadu Revival) until the end of the last decade with Connor Sherlock, Kojima and Taro: a ghost zone where the content -if there is any- can kill your interpretive creativity from within, reach an icon, a collectible, a new area and that the reward is emptiness.
Where is the Lore?
Any. There is not.
Constant movement and no linear thinking. I think that is what we need, that they give us less and put more on our part. And now, I know that we give a good part of our energy to overcome challenges and, why not say so? A good deal of our money goes into this, but our meaning comes in many forms.

-I honestly don't know what the title refers to, but playing it in the month in which Splatoon 3 is launched, which finally seems to find something in its own saga -3 deliveries have taken a long time- beyond a more or less original concept and in the that the latest ranges of Graphic Cards are announced at exorbitant prices and... It's just a micro event, yes, let's go with Automated Lungs

-In something if it looks like the first metroid: The world is only transited, you do not get to dominate. The discomfort of moving through this unborn world of unfinished spaces has the consequence that picking up a simple collectible on a narrow catwalk can become a challenge that is highly dependent on our ability to maintain somewhat rigid inertia through the joystick. The character of this reminds me of Nagoshi's Super Monkey Ball (yes)

-I've never laughed so hard at those sections where they put a collectible in a place you can almost touch but it's hidden behind a transparent wall or whatever, in an area only accessible after a hell of a takeshis challenge. Not even VVVVV's. And at the same time a strange terror. And relief. If the void is like that, if the richness and texture of these dead zones is only a catalyst for sensations and the most literal content is scarce, I am relieved.
On the other hand, this void is not as resounding as the literalness that floods the interpretation and design of contemporary video games. I wouldn't blame anyone who saw the game as a product of "a little polished indie series dealing with self-contained challenges" to be honest.

-Negative areas. Dark green void. Towers that lead to cities driven more by a dreamlike sense than by a gamy logic. I go where I want as I can and that scares me, again it's very strange. I am invaded by the thought of how much contemporary pop culture and the era of immediacy have clearly guided us and have marked a path of more evident and linear readings.
I will definitely come back to this game when its PC version comes out

So I became interested in this game when someone in one of the discords I frequent posted the trailer for it, and me and a few friends all collectively went “what the hell they still make 3DS games???” The truth is that this is one of the last few submitted to Nintendo, and while this one in particular isn’t the last one, it’s… close.

But I also got interested in it because the trailer reminded me of one of my favorite games, Anodyne 2. Maybe a good deal less warm and embracing than that game felt, but the colors and the exploration and the whole vibe really reminded me of that game. Fast forward to last week, I’m getting back into the 3DS since I finally got my hands on a Non-XL “New” 3DS, which was always the one I thought looked the coolest (plus, changeable faceplates? dope!!) and I was browsing the 3DS subreddit and I saw someone mention the game. One eShop card purchase on Amazon later (you can’t directly add funds to the 3DS anymore) and I had my hands on the game proper.

It’s definitely a strange little game. You’re not given anything in the way of context or direction besides the level layout, all you can do is explore, shoot, dash, and ride your little hoverboard. Eventually I stumbled upon the goal of the game, and even made it to the end credits! (er, credit? just the one). Basically it’s a collectathon, where you have to collect these black… square… things that upgrade your health bar. Collect 120 of them and you can begin the final stretch of the game, consisting of some truly surreal images and imaginative level designs. On the way to that final stretch, you’ll also pick up some alternate weapons, and stumble your way through a really huge variety of locations and atmospheres. Some levels look like lo-fi cities, some look like the interior of a house, some recalled nuclear waste, some felt more natural, some had pure geometry, and so many more that I can’t even describe.

Collecting those power-ups is never too much of a chore, but it’s not really difficult at all either. Occasionally there’s some precise platforming required, but only once or twice in the entire game. The boss battles were tedious when I tried to play them like I would a normal arcadey shooter, but when I reconfigured my strategy around what the 3DS could actually make comfortable to do, I won without much trouble. All in all it’s kind of a barebones experience, without much of a power gradient or challenge gradient.

That’s fine to me though, because the selling point here is the atmosphere. I can’t describe it beyond using words like “otherworldly” and “liminal space but in that gen z way that doesn’t fit the actual definition”. And that’s where the Anodyne 2 comparison comes back for me. Nothing about this game feels like Anodyne 2 besides the general sense of exploration, but that sense reminds me so much of exploring the overworld in A2, trying to figure out what I was missing in this large, empty, lo-fi world. Automaton Lung delivers on that feeling.

If I have any real complaint, it’s that I’m not sure this type of game is best suited to the 3DS. The controls are a bit too cramped, and the analog nub is just not up to snuff for camera control. I would replay this game in a heartbeat on the Switch or PC or really any other release the dev wants to go for.

I heartily recommend this game, especially if you have a 3DS you’ve been itching to pick back up and you’re in the mood for a chill, near-directionless experience that gets incredibly wild at the end. I don’t think it’ll blow your mind, but it’ll be a good time.

I'm clearly completely ignorant of whatever this is trying to conjure, because I'm getting nothing here.

If anything, I feel like it's not abstract enough? A humanoid, running and jumping and locking-on and shooting, just seems like a pretty mundane way to interact with these spaces.

Go play Car Quest instead.

Earlier today I was telling a friend about my most Boomer gamer take (which I do not have a lot of). Especially after playing some older 3D games like Deus Ex and 5th/6th gen stuff I get annoyed at how many modern AAA games are so overly detailed and therefore unreadable.

I was thinking that for the first and only hour I gave to The Surge 2 before shelving it that so many environments are so cluttered and overly detailed that not only are they slighlty uncomfortable to look at at times trying to parse them, but they necessitate almost fourth wall breaking guidance elements like big arrows and sharp colour contrasting paint splodges to guide players through. These get made fun of a lot and chalked up to "gaming being dumbed down" and all that but honestly I think most of it is just how modern level design is too complicated to be easily readable.

This semi-related tangent aside, I love how primitive the level design of Automaton Lung is. In the literal sense of the word as they approach the base geometric shapes to make up the level. Despite having very little in the way of tutorialisation or guidance (hell, you can miss 60% of the fucking game by not taking a certain door on the first level) the levels are (for the most part) so clearly readable from the wide open cities to the cramped hallways of the tower levels.

The atmosphere is top notch, added to the music which, whilst repetitive at times just had me hooked for the 3 hours or so I have clocked defeating the final boss with 180/210 stars...er, I mean chips! The movement is jank, indeed the game itself is jank but its so charming and there is enough of a learning curve to the controls (though the game itself is really not very challenging, at least not to get to the end). Its a loveable, clunky piece of shit that I will cherish for years to come.

Its not a flawless game by any means. I mentioned some of the music not having enough variety and honestly the combat is so basic as to be kind of a waste of space and I died like 3 times total, only one of those being from enemy fire and that was against a boss. Maybe it would have been better excised from the game but I'm not sure now that I think about it.

As for the plot, well its very much a no exposition affair. "piece it together" sort of thing like Dark Souls except without the item descriptions. I'm really not clever enough to put together any sort of coherent conclusion to it all, you spawn from a room with 3 futurama -esque glass tubes and one is broken and with particle effects, so Im guessing youre a clone or robot or something. I do think that the environments are interesting enough even if I don't quite understand the story they are trying to tell.

This game is also hilarious at times, from the jank to the ending cutscenes to everything else I streamed this game to friends and we had many laughs with it. I wholeheartedly recommend this game if you are interested in a "middlingly received N64 platformer/run and gun that was hailed as a misunderstood masterpiece 2 decades later". (this last description being coined by BL user Mattt)

EDIT: Having 100%'d the game (well, all achievements, all chips and weapons, if there are any secrets beyond that I will never know) I can say with some sadness that it is one of the rare games I have played where I am left wanting for more. What a gem

Automaton Lung is a hidden Gem in the purest form. One of the last games to ever be released on the Nintendo 3DS. Ported to Steam, people will be able to find and play it for years to come, but the original and intended way to play it is ended by a corporate decision. The game directly reflects Ideas of life support keeping an empty and desolate world alive, a theme that crosses over with the actual reality of its existence on the 3DS in such a unique way. For me, this was an absolute treat of a game and one that I won't be forgetting soon.

As far as recommending this goes, it reminded me of yume nikki, Ratboy Genius, and Hylics. So if that tickles your taste and you like the idea of exploring alien landscapes backed by an excellent soundtrack, with some slight jank, highly recommend this.

A fantastically brutalist game, not in the sense of having angular concrete buildings but in the original sense of showcasing the raw materials with which it's constructed. Automaton Lung wants you to be hyper-aware at every instant that it is a video game, that the world you are seeing is virtual, that the actions you take follow the "explore and collect" script at the heart of so much of the medium.

It doesn't take on the self-defeating preachy tone of some games which seem to say "how dare you engage in such a pursuit." It's no simplistic morality tale. It just wants to revel in what it is, and it wants you to join in as well. All it asks of the player is "see me for what I am."

Everything in the game shows off the materiality of its creation. The icons on the touch screen show off their individual pixels (well larger than anything another game might call a "pixel art style") like a peacock spreading its feathers. The platforming puzzles ask you to familiarize yourself with the fine details of how your model interacts with the models around you. The cramped level geometries clip the camera briefly out of bounds and show the skeleton of the world you're traversing.

Even the total lack of introductory explanation emphasizes the clear truth: you already know what the game wants of you simply because it is a game. You see a colorful cube sending smaller yellow cubes your way, and you know that an enemy is shooting you and you must shoot back or die. You see a small spinning square floating in space, and you know you must touch it to obtain it for some future reward. You find yourself within an architecture and so you must chart its rooms and hallways.

If digital brutalism is its underlying motivator, the architecture of the world is the great triumph of Automaton Lung's moment-to-moment experience. Every area you visit creates its own sense of space with its own distinct mood. They are "levels" in several senses, but they're also rooms and buildings and monuments and cathedrals through which the game guides the player.

The deeper you get in, the clearer it becomes that the chips aren't only collectables, but wordless signposts. Not just "good job", but "check out this view." "Walk through this passage." "You can get here, I promise, and it will be worth it." The raw material of gameplay is turned inward to compel the player to experience the raw material of gamespace. The architecture of the design is as beautiful as the architecture of the world.