So... you're an octopus. There, we've said it. You play an octopus, but nobody realises you're an octopus, least of all your wife, who we meet at the very start of the game as you bumble your way through the church to make it to the altar. The fact that the altar is just a couple of hundred feet away isn't the point, especially since it's going to take all your dexterity and patience to make it out of a single room, never mind all the way up the aisle. Octodad: Dadliest Catch is going to put your patience to the limit, but those who are able to preserve will discover one of the funniest games around.
The controls are messy, but then that's the point. Each button represents a different limb, and as you can imagine, an octopus on dry land in clothing is not exactly the most graceful of creatures. You'll go around every room, knocking things over, bumping into everything, and it's very funny, until... you get stuck. One of your limbs will get caught in something, and you'll have to restart from the most recent save-point, and this is going to happen far more regularly than it really should in a next-gen game like this.
These sticking points are about as challenging as the game gets however, and you'll probably run through all of Dadliest Catch in just a few hours. Despite that, you'll probably still come back to it over and over again, specifically when you've got a few friends over and you all take turns at controlling the loveable character, as he turns a humdrum activity like making coffee into a maddeningly difficult task.
Yes, the plot is pretty much Chicken-Boo from The Animaniacs, and yes, the dad is alarmingly reminiscent of Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama, but Dadliest Catch is still quite unlike any other game you'll play this year.
Format: PlayStation 4, PC
Genre: Platform
Developers: Young Horses
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
