Vivian Clark Looks Surreal and Incredible

Not content to rest on his laurels after announcing that Soda Drinker Pro will be coming to the Xbox One with Kinect support, which is amazing in and of itself, Will Brierly showed me his next bit of gaming madness at PAX East 2014. I’ve seen Vivian Clark before, but never like this. Never like this. I’m not sure if my mind is ready for it, but Vivian Clark is becoming bigger and more insane than I had ever imagined.

For those who aren’t in the know, if you can somehow get your mind off the simulated soda while playing Soda Drinker Pro, you may stumble across a hidden gateway that leads to a whole other game: Vivian Clark. In that game, you start off as a raindrop, and whatever you touch takes over your gameplay. Hit a hot air balloon on the way down? Looks like you’re a snake flying a balloon trying to water crops, now. Flew up into space? Now you’re a space ship who might crash and become an alien hopping along a weird planet or a star roller skating across the galaxy. I may have said that you cannot know what is going to happen next in other games before, but that sentence has been rendered all but meaningless when compared to the madness going on in Vivian Clark. You literally have no idea what will happen next in this game.

The game had quite a few odd things that could happen to you before, but in his showing at PAX East 2014, Brierly showed that there were now dozens of odd outcomes that will happen depending on what you touch and do in the game. I watched handfuls of people play Brierly’s game at the show, amazed at how many different outcomes I saw just because people chose to play or do different things. Not only that, but there is a link on the game’s site where people can pay to submit their own ideas for things to do in the game, and for a couple of dollars you can add your own insanity into it. The amount of things you can do is swiftly growing, and the game is only getting crazier as a result. The game was weird before, but clearly a lot more work has gone into it to make it even more varied.

If you have any appreciation for odd games like Vidiot Game, Burrito Galaxy, or Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, you’ll appreciate the crazy sense of humor this game has as well as the amount of work and time that would go into linking all of these different ideas together. A lot of craziness and hard work have gone into this game, one that is still only available as a secret unlockable in Soda Drinker Pro, and it has to be played to be truly appreciated.

Joel Couture / MASH Veteran A horror-obsessed gamer, Joel is still spending his days looking for something to scare himself as much as Fatal Frame. Even so, he has ridiculous action games and obscure gems to keep him happy in the meantime. A self-proclaimed aficionado of terrible retro games, he's always looking for a rotten game he hasn't played yet, and may be willing to exchange information for candy. Specialty: Horror