FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Games

'Hungover' is a Simple, Stark Puzzle Game about Stumbling Home

It’s really hard to do block puzzles when your head is splitting.

You ever get so drunk you can't find your way home? And you need to push boulders into the ocean to cross it—or steal a raft—so you can make your way? No?

Hungover (by Breogán Hackett) is a spare, browser-based puzzler about exploring a vaguely The Legend of Zelda-looking world, talking to tiny ascii people about all the ruckus you caused the night before. It's essentially a series of block puzzles—you can push, but never pull—so finding out when and where to push your boulders is key.

There's a theme here: everything is so hard when you're hungover. You just want to get home. I almost expected a little barfing animation from your character once they're on their little raft, crossing rivers and oceans to get back to your blessed little purple house.

For how tiny it is (it only takes a few minutes to complete, once you have the hang of boulder-moving), there's a hint of a wider world here. There's even a side quest, where you can seek out 5 mystical people before returning home.

I just hope that, once my little avatar made it home, they had a nice bottle of gatorade and a long, healing nap.