This game has absolutely zero market appeal, which is based as hec. A Tetris style puzzle game where you gotta connect intestinal tubes, trying to make them as long and twisty as possible before capping them off at every orifice. (Tho if you accidentally leave a single hole open and unreachable, the entire tract is now unusable save for the fairy coming along to mine some trash meat away if you manage to summon her)
A lot slower and methodical than a lot of games in the genre, and extremely punishing for any minor mistakes to compensate. Bit of an RNG nightmare at later levels but it do feel good to burst a digestive tract you just spent 4 minutes piecing together. It's like if Tetris let you clear the ENTIRE map from top to bottom instead of just 4 lines at max. But yeah when it starts spawning 3 pieces at once it can get pretty rough.
Perhaps just about any other game in the genre is more worth your time, but I like to think there's room for the unusual and unloved. Virtual Lab somehow has the Virtual Boy itself beat in those two categories. This game practically doesn't even exist. It's got obscene rarity due to the Virtual Boy being cancelled before it got to come out properly. So that's pretty cool. For what it is, it works and I don't have much bad to say about it. Nothing to really praise beyond the vile concept free of any tiring tropes. No marketable plushies or standard conventions here - connect those intestines with the trademark black and red VB visuals, a repetitive soundtrack that isn't exactly coherently written, and uh, not much else.
Somehow managed to get to level 33 after leaving the game on for 7 days and playing off and on. A year later someone beat my record by hitting 35. Borderline unplayable this many stages in but there's something to be said about the challenge of overcoming something that wasn't even designed to be beaten. A visceral connection very few well designed games can match.
If this dropped tomorrow on Steam or any other digital shop, it would be a breath of fresh air to me. I'm just so tired man, I've resorted to playing Virtual Lab because at every turn you're bombarded with "Gather materials and craft tools, build your base and survive the harsh randomly generated landscapes in this early access open world" Bro I don't got time for that I'm busy crafting intestines I can't be bothered to be picking up wood and stones I've moved on man.
A lot slower and methodical than a lot of games in the genre, and extremely punishing for any minor mistakes to compensate. Bit of an RNG nightmare at later levels but it do feel good to burst a digestive tract you just spent 4 minutes piecing together. It's like if Tetris let you clear the ENTIRE map from top to bottom instead of just 4 lines at max. But yeah when it starts spawning 3 pieces at once it can get pretty rough.
Perhaps just about any other game in the genre is more worth your time, but I like to think there's room for the unusual and unloved. Virtual Lab somehow has the Virtual Boy itself beat in those two categories. This game practically doesn't even exist. It's got obscene rarity due to the Virtual Boy being cancelled before it got to come out properly. So that's pretty cool. For what it is, it works and I don't have much bad to say about it. Nothing to really praise beyond the vile concept free of any tiring tropes. No marketable plushies or standard conventions here - connect those intestines with the trademark black and red VB visuals, a repetitive soundtrack that isn't exactly coherently written, and uh, not much else.
Somehow managed to get to level 33 after leaving the game on for 7 days and playing off and on. A year later someone beat my record by hitting 35. Borderline unplayable this many stages in but there's something to be said about the challenge of overcoming something that wasn't even designed to be beaten. A visceral connection very few well designed games can match.
If this dropped tomorrow on Steam or any other digital shop, it would be a breath of fresh air to me. I'm just so tired man, I've resorted to playing Virtual Lab because at every turn you're bombarded with "Gather materials and craft tools, build your base and survive the harsh randomly generated landscapes in this early access open world" Bro I don't got time for that I'm busy crafting intestines I can't be bothered to be picking up wood and stones I've moved on man.