I find some of the games I like to play for this column on the beloved Weird Fucking Games Twitter account. Some games on there aren’t really all that weird—last week’s Free Play about lost memories was more poignant and picturesque—but sometimes, they really live up to the label.
Crisp Ricies, by Crawlspace, is definitely one of these.
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In the game, you play as a Rice Crispy Treat (uh, a Crisp Rice treat, for fear of trademark) with squiggle arms and legs. Your goal is to cross the spindly arm-shaped obstacle in front of you and launch yourself into a mouth. Do that successfully, and you’ll make it to the next level, where there might be a wiggly mess of fingers to contend with, or the mouth (and its attached face) might move like a carnival target, requiring precise timing.
It’s simple, and rather shockingly engaging. Especially once you find yourself over the inherent humor of the absurd premise, and you start thinking about why this animate Crisp Rice Treat might, so passionately, want to hurl itself into a mouth. There is horror in being food, surely, but there is something even more awful, and unsettling, about being food that so desperately wants to be eaten.
You can download the game for free (or name your own price) on its itch.io page.
