There was a weird, brief design trend in late ’90s gaming for digitised sprites, as every developer raced to get a piece of Mortal Kombat’s success. There was a chaotic charm to FMV games like Pit-Fighter and Primal Rage, and it’s a style Obey the Insect God is aiming to bring back; a retro game-inspired time capsule stocked with giant insects, brutal boss fights, and more than a little uncanny valley.
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(Image credit: Chunkle Freaky’s Movies Games)
Modern retro is very weird
The story takes cues from Finland’s national epic, the Kalevala, giving the game a surprisingly deep narrative that unspools as you fight and explore. Full voice acting and live actors appear throughout, turning every room in the Insect God’s lair into a small, uncanny scene that embraces its ’90s aesthetic with such enthusiasm its hard not to be impressed.
Combat looks fast, precise, and satisfying. You’ll need to master timing, blocking, and combos to survive a roster of strange enemies and punishing bosses. And with more than two dozen unique zones, plus near-total freedom to traverse the lair however you like, the game rewards curiosity as much as skill.
Obey the Insect God revels in its retro callbacks and inspired ’90s nostalgia, embracing the awkward, hypnotic charm of FMV and digitised sprites that were all the rage when MC Hammer was insisting ‘U Can’t Touch This’. For anyone craving retro arcade energy wrapped in a strange, beautiful, ninja-infested FMV-animated package, this upcoming quirky release looks inspired.
(Image credit: Chunkle Freaky’s Movies Games)
You can read more on the developer’s blog, and pre-order on Steam.