Filmechanism
Developer Chemical Pudding
Publisher Phoenixx Inc
Format PC (tested), Switch
Release Out now
C ameras are time machines. Every snapshot we take halts the flow of time, permanently capturing a tiny slice of it; weeks, months, years, even decades later, the same image can transport us back to the very moment it was taken. That notion is at the heart of this precisely designed puzzler from the brilliantly named Japanese indie Chemical Pudding. Its deceptively straightforward challenges invite ‘camera humanoid’ Rec to collect rolls of film that allow him to take one still: recording a stage in its present form to the sound of a shutter’s click, to be later restored, accompanied by the whine of a flashbulb. It’s a fitting conceit for a game that looks and feels like a game out of time: with its appealingly chunky pixel art and limited palette, it has the flavour of a forgotten Game Boy Color title. Today, it would surely feel most at home on Analogue Pocket.