#GENITAL JOUSTING STORY MODE FULL#

There are several moments that seem like legitimate choices to be made, only for those choices to be illusory – a narrative device with a specific purpose that has no place here. Genital Jousting really doesn’t care for the player’s input. And while that sounds like just about the best thing ever, this title shows how much of those games’ greatness was due to execution. Their combination could be superficially described as The Stanley Parable meets Octodad by way of schlong. And most importantly, none of the gameplay elements involved in the single-player experience add up to a cohesive whole. The title screen itself just splatters its constituent pieces across the screen, like the developers outsourced the UI to the physics engine.

The divide between its two halves feels like its trying for a bait and switch à la Spec Ops: The Line or Doki Doki Literature Club! while still offering the silly penis playground that was advertised.

On the other hand, the change-up highlights how Genital Jousting constantly feels like it’s being pulled in multiple directions at once. Turning the fact that the protagonist is literally and figuratively a giant dick into the underpinning of a surprisingly relevant message doesn’t save the single-player content, but it was enough to shake me from the stupor that it had otherwise dropped me into. But after some time (not that much the story’s only 90 minutes long), it shifts its priority to delivering a statement on toxic masculinity that’s so accurate and creatively realized that I’m still a little shocked it was in the same game as everything else I’ve described. Now, I imagine everyone’s first reaction to learning of the story mode’s presence was, “How do you make a story out of that?” At first, it seems like it’s going to be the same interminable joke as Date Night mode: a guy named John going through his ordinary life and looking for a date, except…well, you know. Additionally, the occasionally uncooperative physics actually improve its potential as a party game, because no matter how skilled you become, you can still be tripped up by a wayward testicle, giving everyone a shot at victory without being entirely chance-based. As usual for this sort of thing, some of the selections are better than others, but even the less impressive ones get by on the incredulity they evoke. Party mode has much more longevity, being a collection of randomly chosen X-rated Mario Party minigames, including wiener dog roundup challenges and a suppository-devouring contest. It’s entertaining for about 15 minutes until the complete lack of depth sinks in. Traditional mode is a simple competition to see who can overcome the wobbly physics engine and penetrate their opponents first (oh, by the way, the penises all have anuses on their back). The other two options are more worthwhile. It’s as pointless as it sounds, unless you find “This penis is doing things that penises don’t normally do!” to be a joke that never gets old. Date Night has players accompany their chosen phalli on ten-second dates. Multiplayer is further divided into three categories: Traditional, Party, and Date Night modes. This makes sense, as the multiplayer component is arguably the better, more straightforward one, even if the other is more interesting for its sheer audacity.

#GENITAL JOUSTING STORY MODE FULL#

The first half is the primary focus, as it’s the part that’s been available in Early Access for some time the Steam description didn’t even mention a planned story mode until the day of the full release. It’s a game of two fairly distinct halves: the quirky, accessible multiplayer mode, and the still comedic but genuinely meaningful story mode (no, seriously). From a purely methodological perspective, the game is a slapdash curiosity at best, but it’s at least the most memorable slapdash curiosity since Goat Simulator. I love being able to imagine a more traditional publishing executive listening to the elevator pitch with his jaw agape, sputtering something along the lines of, “But that’s gay!” before having a little brain aneurysm and going off to throw money at the next obliviously macho military shooter. I don’t particularly like this game, but I love the fact that it exists. Most recently, thank you for Genital Jousting, the game about competitive intercourse between anthropomorphic penises. Discretion is advised.ĭevolver Digital, thank you for being what sometimes seems like the only boundary-pushing, risk-taking entity in an industry whose comfort zone has the radius of a hockey puck. Disclaimer: This review contains images and language that may offend readers.

Genital jousting story mode