THE LONGEST ROAD ON EARTH

DEVELOPER Brainwash Gang, TLR Games PRICE $14.50

AVAILABILITY Released WEBSITE http://www.thelongestroadonearth.com/

And, I was obviously still in the mood for anthropomorphic characters and songwriting when I found The Longest Road on Earth. As I finish up reviewing the indie games for this issue, Sydney is going into lockdown again. For me this is likely to mean a significantly more demanding teaching commitment, online (especially when my kids are supposed to be learning online, too). This game is exactly as challenging as I can handle right now; not at all challenging.

It’s a collection of melancholy songs for which the accompanying video clips are interactive, pixel art levels. Each scene is loosely tied to song length, then embellished with looping chord progressions that evolve, texturally, over time. I actually really like having “something to do” while listening to evocative music. Teaching composition means that I’m constantly overwhelmed by every student’s beautiful new creation. If this were an album, I’d have stopped listening, just because I’m always emotionally full. Of course, interactivity tricked me into feeling anyway.

I’m the mouse, staring into a coffee cup, missing someone, then cycling joyously through the countryside. Or the fox, appreciating sunlight through the leaves of a tree, in the park, on the way to tune (possibly) a moose’s piano, the keys I touched then forming the motif in the next piece and the black keys becoming the silhouettes of animals, in a puddle, back in the park. By the end of the game, I don’t really have a clear recollection of the music at all, just some of the repeated lyrics, “dance with me, wait for me, it’ll be OK.” And, it will. A game for until we can dance together again!