Sometimes the games industry can be more than a little bit crazy. Whether it's opening a barber shop for a number of anthropomorphic vegetables, a game version of the 'Hole In The Wall' tv show but with more buff body builders/thong-wearing polar bears or playing through a number of bizarre dreams involving psycho sheep and steamy sex scenes, there's a strong tradition of throwing all logic to the wind and being just that little bit crazy. And then there's Octodad, a unique octopus-flavoured parenting simulator, which is due to hit the Playstation 4 in a couple of months time.
Octodad basically turns simple, mundane tasks, such as trying to put on a bow tie, shoot a few hoops with the kids or take a trip to the aquarium and turns them into a hilariously complex gauntlet of confusing controls and stray banana peels. A mish-mash of triggers, tentacles and twin analogue sticks eventually translate into something approaching forward momentum, vaguely resembling a drunken John Wayne doing the splits, as you scoot around the world, often taking an occasional chair or cushion along for the ride (it's those pesky suckers, you see...). But throughout your mission, one thing remains clear - no-one, and we mean no-one - must find out that you're secretly an octopus...
These shops are a death trap...
While fighting against the intentionally awkward controls is arguably where the fun lies, sometimes you might want a bit of a break - if only you had three less limbs to worry about, it might be easier to saunter down the wedding aisle, rather than flail precariously before slapping your mother in law to be round the back of the head. Thankfully, team Octodad have recently announced a big new bonus feature for both the PC and PS4 version of the game - the inclusion of co-op, which lets up to four friends work together, each controlling a separate limb. Yes, you read that right. Likely to increase the chaos ten-fold, each player is responsible for the actions of a single tentacle, meaning you'll likely need a full-scale tactical discussion just to walk down a single corridor. And heaven forbid if your left 'arm' decides to go rogue and do everything in it's power to reveal your true cephalopod nature...
What sounds even crazier is the 'roulette' mode, in which players' limbs get swivelled around after each objective is completed - so a player who was controlling the right arm switches to the left leg, while another may suddenly swap arms, and so on. But the game won't actually tell you who's moved to which appendage, leaving players to work it out for themselves instead, while poor old Octodad ties himself in knots in the meantime. Fortunately, if you find the mode gets a bit too much you can simply toggle it on and off, returning to a more 'normal' co-operative game instead - but we doubt that'll make things that much easier.
One of our most anticipated Playstation 4 titles, the octopus-flavoured parenting simulator is out now on PC for less than a tenner, with its console counterpart just a month or two away. We can't wait - and you can read our hands-on thoughts here.
