Dissolved: Chapter One (2022)

Developer: Absorb Reality
Platforms: PC (Microsoft Windows), Nintendo Switch
Genres: Point-and-click, Fighting, Shooter, Puzzle, Sport, Hack and slash/Beat 'em up
Where to get it: Nintendo eShop

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A disorienting and challenging mix of mini-game styles that make you feel unsettled and absurdly amused as you weaponize strange mechanics against enemies.

feel-badchallenginghumorousunsettlingsimple controlsparodicdarkly comicfast-paced

About

If there are feel-good games, well Dissolved is a feel-bad game. You play as a girl whose weird psychosis is to turn every ordeal in her life into a video game. It's a mix of completely new gameplays, fun and very challenging, parodying old arcade games. Each control scheme is very simple, often one or two buttons, but unsettling at first. How to fight space gopniks shooting from the sky if you can't shoot back? Well, simply strike through their projectiles until your reach them. And if you find yourself unarmed against armies of cops, you can always use their own dead bodies as projectiles.

Screenshots

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More by Absorb Reality

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.