My feelings for The Spiral Scouts are complicated. The game was developed by Huniepot, a studio that is no stranger to pairing immature, deliberately-offensive humor with satisfying gameplay. The Spiral Scouts fits neatly into their ideals.
On the surface, The Spiral Scouts looks like a game perfect for a Nintendo console. Set in a cutesy world designed to look like a children’s pop-up book, players follow a girl scout named Remae as she hunts for badges by solving puzzles. It’s got the flimsy look of Paper Mario, and quests suitable for any Banjo-Kazooie fan who loves collecting items. The heart of the game lies in the juxtaposition between the game’s childlike look and its adult content.
From the ample amount of toilet humor, to its jabs at sex, physical abuse, and alcohol dependence, The Spiral Scouts is not afraid to make a few bad jokes. For me, the game is a bit difficult to play because of its humor and its gameplay. Some jokes definitely made me laugh, others left me disappointed. Like any Huniepot game, The Spiral Scouts’ humor is either for you or it is not. It’s not interested in playing it safe.
What I found most enjoyable about the game was its puzzles, which ranged from simple to ridiculously difficult. As much as The Spiral Scouts is unafraid of telling dirty jokes, it’s also not afraid of throwing a few puzzles that seem impossible to understand. The game even recommends having a pen and paper handy for the complex ones that require a lot of notes. Many left me stumped for hours, staring at the same screen until something finally cracked and I found the solution (or I looked it up in frustration). But as much as it tried my patience,, I still can’t help but enjoy a great brain-busting puzzle.
I also appreciate the wide range of characters in the game. Remae, despite her innocent appearance, is a brash trickster. While she may be helping people solve their problems, she’s only doing it for her own personal gain. Despite the chaos of the world around her, Remae remains collected, and cool. I especially enjoyed watching her interact with strangers and their wild requests for help. She can easily brush off requests to mate pigs, break into bank vaults, or time travel. The world is ridiculously absurd, and while I’m aghast but these wild requests, but nothing phases little Remae.
There’s one particular puzzle early in the game that still bugs me. Remae has to help a king fix his erectile dysfunction, and the end result really made me question if I should continue playing. I continued, because I enjoyed Remae and puzzle solving so much, but for other players the game’s sense of humor may be a factor in whether or not they make it until the end.
Despite a few jokes that made me wince, the game really is irreverent and funny, and I appreciate that it evoked some very complex feelings despite how childish it can be. The Spiral Scouts may be rude and crude, but it’s also a pleasure to play. It’s a game determined to rack my brain, both with its difficult puzzles and its ability to be totally not my type of game and also totally my type of game. The Spiral Scouts is a puzzling piece of work, but one that feels good to solve, even if the answer is a few dick jokes.
Shonté Daniels is a poet who occasionally writes about games. Her games writing has appeared in Kill Screen, Motherboard, Waypoint and elsewhere. Her poetry can be seen at Puerto del Sol, Baltimore Review, Phoebe, and others literary journals. Check out Shonte-Daniels.com for a full archive, or follow her for sporadic tweeting.