Grotesque new platform game Gennady takes place in a squelchy, eminently punchable world of procedurally generated, wriggling alien cubes. Burst a cube and you’ll be rewarded with juicy, golden maggots and a shower of delightful green ooze. Sometimes the ooze spawns a grotty little janitor monster, who slinks up behind you with mop in tentacle. Yes, this is a game in which the filth tries to clean up after itself. Good luck with that, filth. Here’s a trailer.
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Gennady is not one of your classic feelgood platformers. It’s a misanthropic mix of Dead Cells and Earthworm Jim, with some exuberant comicbook animation and roguelite progression elements to accompany the hop ‘n’ bop ‘n’ blasting.
You play a grumpy middle-aged man in heart-print boxers. What you are doing here in this realm of squirming bioblocks is anybody’s guess, but Gennady – assuming that’s his name – seems mighty irked about something. “You are as much of a light as I am of a moth,” he comments gnomically in the trailer. It seems possible you will be able to transform into a moth, given that the Steam page already stipulates that you can transform into a squirrel.
There’s a demo on that Steam page. I’ve had a pop at the opening Meat Processing area. It’s an enjoyably mushy creation with some novel flourishes – when you die, there’s a progression minigame in which you shoot falling items to retain them for your next run. I do feel sorry for the enemies, though, all of whom might be cousins of Dr Zoidberg, and all of whom appear to be employees of whatever hell factory this game is set in. You can also recruit Frienemies, which are essentially game modifiers in pettable form.
In general, I worry that Gennady’s misanthropy might hew towards the “teenage boy writing his name in dog poop” end of the moodboard. There’s a touch of knowing sexism, with a big-boobed tentacle storekeeper who (going by the WIP art on the Steam feed) tells you that her eyes are up here, sweetie. Of possible relevance: the tutorial level pop-ups archly mention that there’s no princess to rescue, though there is, apparently, a Queen. I imagine she’s the source of all the larvae.
Mixed feelings about Gennady’s doomy masculine edginess notwithstanding, I have a basic, automatic enthusiasm for anything that reminds me faintly of Earthworm Jim. There’s no release date yet. Developers Feed 64 are an outsourcing team based in Armenia, whose past creations include this free-to-play mobile game about lobbing worms up a shaft.
