An obscure Japanese horror game from 1999 has been translated into English and made available to play online, just in time to introduce some new images to your nightmare Rolodex this Halloween. It’s called Garage: Bad Dream Adventure and, true to its name, seems to have sprung from the tortured mindscape of a mechanic working 90-hour workweeks.
The player character looks like the Eraserhead baby fell into an industrial landfill covered in glue and the setting is a grimy, labyrinthine garage constructed of wood and rusting metal. Everything looks uncomfortable, and it sounds even worse—the background music mostly consists of a synth accordion playing endless funeral dirges. Text displayed in the opening cinematic tells us, “it will be alright, please trust Garage” before showing off the game’s cast of fleshy robot characters and introducing us to the protagonist, which is searching for its “shadow” in order to avoid being “forced to live in my own past.”
According to YouTube channel Y8, “only 3000 copies” of Garage were distributed, and only in Japan. “The game was considered lost media for several years and fetches several thousand dollars for a physical copy,” a video description explains. A write-up from Hardcore Gaming 101 describes more of the game, which was created by surrealist artist Tomomi Sakuba. Garage is mostly played by moving around, talking to other monstrosities and hunting for items, while also keeping an eye on gauges such as “your ‘sense of self,’ which renders you an incomprehensible mess to other characters if it’s too low, and will outright kill you if it bottoms out.” Apparently it also “has a strange preponderance with fishing,” which is fun.
Check out a video of the game being played on YouTube or read Hardcore Gaming 101‘s description for more.
[via Garbage Day]
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