By Kevin Kennedy
As you can guess from that question mark at the end of the title, I’m completely at a loss when it comes to this game. Hohokum, available on PS3, PS4, and Vita, is a game in which you play a strange, kite- or snake-like creature that changes color and makes music. You travel between different vibrant worlds, interacting with different creatures, and progressing to do…something.
In which my Rainbow Snake says hello to a village of gourds.
This game offers you little direction. While you adventure, you find other creatures like yourself, and occasionally make hidden eyes open. Figuring out what it all means is up to you, as the player. However, that doesn’t make this game any less of an interesting experience. Adventuring between worlds, I found myself often enthralled in understanding what my goal was. Sometimes, I’d think I understood, only to then find myself confused moments later.
Hello there giant moth monster guy.
The bizarre nature of this game, in which you touch things and creatures, solving puzzles, and occasionally offering rides to inhabitants, is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. At its best, I find myself smiling and laughing as my rainbow snake ferries inhabitants through an amusement park, or as my snake causes a group of masked beings to dance, perhaps to please a giant creature in the background. At its worst, I find myself bored, searching all of a world to even figure out my purpose in it.
The artwork of Richard Hogg fuels the fun of this game, offering vibrant and unique worlds and inhabitants, and the excellent soundtrack, though sparse at times, draws the player into the world, as every action helps create or change the existing music. Each world is vastly different, offering up a unique feel, look, and sound. Some seem rather small, while others are rather expansive. In each, there are a great number of things to do and discover, but some still feel much more alive than others. Overall, this game is one a player can get lost in for days, or one that a player might tire of after one play session.
The rainbow snake fights to free a captured animal. PETA ain’t got nothing on Rainbow Sky Snake!
Honestly, I still don’t know what to make of this game. It certainly is one of the most unique experiences I’ve encountered on a console. I’d say try it, because if nothing else, this rainbow sky snake offers something you’ve never seen before. Even at its worst, I still find myself enchanted by the bizarreness, the art, and the soundtrack.
It’s a swinging party.
All Images are Copyright SCEA and Honeyslug
