Every child should have some piece of media that is surprisingly traumatic to form the daring edge of their taste, and looking back, this was mine. Beating this game as a child and seeing its utterly unhinged ending definitely sparked something in me. Ruined my life by leading to the chain of events that would lead to me becoming a "Backloggd user" who cares about video games as an "artistic narrative medium" that should have "themes". The patterns that have emerged in how I read games, especially my favorite games (Undertale and Metal Gear Solid 2), seem clearly rooted in my childhood experience with this one work.
It grapples with themes of escapism, divine command, and the nature and value of reality in a way that made me, at the age of maybe eight years old, pause and consider, internalizing concepts that would impact me long after. The literature, television, and film I like has also, most definitely, been affected by this game, as well as, I suspect, the way I’ve grappled with religion and philosophy throughout my young life.
But, there are many kids out there who played this game and yet were not shocked and appalled by the ending to the same degree. They did not have the opportunity to glean themes about escapism, to be hit like a train by its sudden and unexpected darkness without it being suddenly undercut.
Later printings of the game change the ending to be something lighter, less shocking, and less meaningful during its final twist. Now, I realize that I’m getting myself significantly worked up about a ratings complaint directed at a kids game that, for as much as it affected me and thus is a forever 5 star game in my book, is only really “sort of okay” rather than actual, politically significant cases of censorship, but hear me out.
If I didn’t play this game as a kid, if I didn’t grapple with this work of art that I found genuinely challenging, I would not love the medium in the manner that I do, and it’s a deep shame that other kids didn’t get to experience what I did. It’s shocking, flawed, rough, and yet interesting and weird and philosophical in a way that art aimed at children rarely is, and so of course I latched onto it and it made me a different person, it was a whole new frontier of experience.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, from my own experience of having been a child, children need to be able to experience art that is genuinely a little subversive. I worry that with the overwhelming cultural dominance of companies like Disney and Epic Games and Warner over children’s media, there won’t be as much space for things that are at once childish (this game is immature, easy, and simple) and hugely weird.
Is it really worth getting worked up that my favorite kids game changed its ending? Not really, but I do believe that there is room for me to be a little sad for children who aren’t able to see anything quite like the game’s original ending, which I worry will be more and more children.