Towelket One More Time 5 Review
(Warning: This game contains content that may not be suitable for younger viewers and the easily disturbed. Please refer to the warnings at the bottom of → This Page ← Keep in mind that some of these topics will be mentioned in this review)
Towelket One More Time 5: Gaugau's Bride is the 7th entry in the Towelket series, released on November 12, 2010. This is considered to be the true version of Towelket 5, as Towelket 5 Classic was never completed and Towelket Fury was removed shortly after its release.
The story of Towelket 5 begins with Pucchi and her sister Agochu arguing about what's in the center of the Earth. Determined to prove her sister wrong, Pucchi decides to dig all the way to the Earth's core. As it turns out, her silly journey ends up setting off a chain of events that causes the Earth to stop spinning. In the midst of all this, a girl named Roppenchu gets caught up in this mess after being confessed to by her classmate. Seeing that the surface of the Earth has been completely destroyed, she decides that she has nothing better to do than to travel to the depths of the Earth.
Compared to the previous games in the series, Towelket 5 takes a much more comedic approach to its story and characters. I almost want to call it a parody of the Towelket series as a whole, although it somehow lacks any recognizable formula that the previous games had for me to confidently label it as such. But this game focuses more on the humorous aspects of Towelket rather than developing its plot, which I don't think is an inherently flawed approach. But humor is extremely subjective, personally I just didn't find this game very funny. Most of the jokes in the game rely heavily on two things: ironic meta humor and attempting to be as outrageous as possible. And the end result is a game that just feels like it's embarrassed of its own existence.
This is a game that knows what it is and what it's doing, and in a way I feel like I can't fault it for what it's trying to do. There is clear effort that went into making this game, that much is apparent from the shiny new portrait style and brand new characters. It is without a doubt, one big shitpost in game form.
But still, this game's attempt at comedy just didn't really click with me. There were several jokes in this game that should have appealed to me. For whatever reason, though, this game felt compelled to drag out every mildly funny moment into a two- to three-minute slog that just kept going when the punchline had already been delivered. It was as if no joke in the game was allowed to stand on its own, so each one had to be accompanied by an extra seven lines of dialogue to remind you that there was, in fact, a joke happening.
As I mentioned before, much of this game's humor relies heavily on outrageousness. Many would consider a lot of the jokes to be crossing the line, or basically too offensive. The game seems to operate under the notion that players will sit on the edge of their seats wondering, "There's no way they'll go that far..." Then, the game goes that far, which is both shocking and humorous. However, there is a problem with this that has nothing to do with the game's humor being too edgy, problematic, whatever.
It's the fact that a lot of these boundaries this game attempts to push...have already been pushed before...by previous games.
Towelket is no stranger to the taboo subject matter that this game wears proudly on its sleeve. These ideas have already been explored in both serious and comedic contexts. That's not to say that just because it's been done once in the series means it can never be done again. However, when many of the jokes in this game really—and I mean really—hone in on the fact that what's happening on screen is messed up and shocking, then what else am I supposed to think other than that the game is constantly trying and failing to shock the player? When surely, players have likely already been desensitized to such content by previous games. It's strange because this is probably one of the few games in the series that expects you to have played the previous games, considering how much it references them as part of its humor.
So, let's discuss the meta humor in this game. I feel like this aspect is probably what has aged the worst. Maybe I would have found the game funnier if I had played it in 2010, but I'm pretty sure the ironic fourth-wall-breaking jokes had already been played out by then. In every other scene, the characters practically turn to the camera and say, "Hey, isn't it crazy that we're in a video game right now?" If they're not doing that, then they're acknowledging games that came before and sort of winking and nudging the viewer, rolling their eyes and saying, "Haha, remember THAT?" It's not clever, especially when it happens for the twentieth time in a row.
All of this culminates in a game that feels weirdly insecure. It knows what it is and is utterly embarrassed by it, constantly degrading itself so it can laugh at itself as much as it assumes the player is. Its lack of confidence in its own humor causes a lot of it to fall flat—something that didn't happen as much with previous games, which were more genuine.
As I said before, of course, humor is incredibly subjective. While I might not have found this game all that funny, I don't doubt that this game is an absolute knee-slapper for someone else. However, if you look past the humor, Towelket 5 doesn't have much more to offer. There's an attempt to tell an actual story in the middle of the game, and it's not bad. However, it's not very developed because it's not the game's main focus. It's definitely not worth playing the whole game for.
The characters are there, they do things, they say some jokes. Some of the newer characters were a little interesting, but we just don't see enough of them.
All I can say is, maybe try out the first hour of the game. If you find it enjoyable, then good, I recommend it. If you don't then feel free to stop there, you probably won't enjoy the rest of the game. It's not like this is a completely irredeemable dumpster fire of an entry, but it was just incredibly boring and underwhelming to me. Maybe I would have found it funnier if I was 12. This was like the Family Guy of Towelket games.
I rate this game 2/5 Towels
