Freeware Garden: Tarantella Sicilienne

Freeware Garden searches the corners of the internet to highlight one free game every day.

Ah, yes, the Sicilian Tarantella. The wonderfully upbeat, allegedly poison-curing and impossibly catchy music from Southern Italy that’s a perfect match for weddings, revolutions and the freshly released Tarantella Sicilienne by George Schweinfest. Or is that by the Catamites and their Harmony Zone thing/initiative as part of the Harmony Summer Hardpack Tape 11-in-1?

I am frankly confused, but you really shouldn’t care too much. I’m prone to confusion.

Better care about finding a few minutes to play and, if possible, to whistle to the tunes of the terrific Tarantella Sicilienne: an idiosyncratically yet beautifully illustrated web-game that initially seems to be all about harvesting corn and, surprisingly, is all about corn. From the perspective of a rural family.

Thing is, no matter how picturesque, jolly and even healthy a farmer’s work might seem to someone hunched over a keyboard, it’s a harsh and poor life only the ignorant could romanticize. Tarantella Sicilienne is, of course, far from ignorant.

It is a short and expertly told interactive story that shatters preconceptions instead, but also a story that never fails to sardonically look at life. An elegant little game that uses simple arcade-like controls to help you (and apparently me) get a glimpse of a difficult reality.

Either that or I got it all wrong and it’s all about war. Or a moral. Play it anyway.