SuperSight Gives Heartfelt Advice Through Punching

I just finished playing through SuperSight's short-but-sweet five chapters, and I feel... enriched. Like, as a human being. It's a charming little beat 'em up from Channel 4, you see, so its somewhat typical (though extremely well-executed) trappings hide a gooey, nougaty center of meaning. In short, it's basically Rocky Training Montage: The Game meets Mr Miyagi. You will fight, you will cry blood and sweat tears, and you will grow under the tutelage of the firm yet kindly Wise Guy. Also, you're some kind of living Tiki mask for some reason. SuperSight's an experience that's equal parts good and feel-good, though. More thoughts and soul-smiles after the break.

So basically, each enemy type represents a different fear you might encounter in your day-to-day life, and combat strategies mirror healthy actions you can take to, well, combat them. Worriers, for instance, are worries incarnate, and you have to dodge behind them for attacks to be successful. Wise Guy explains that it's all about seeing them from a different angle. Reaching real understanding of yourself and turning them into something positive. Vermin, meanwhile, are skittering, scattering hopelessness voids, and it's absolutely necessary to deal with them before they pile up into a much, much bigger problem.

SuperSight powers - which are charged up by collecting coins from defeated enemies - aid tremendously in this while further feeding the rather overt (but, I think, nicely effective) symbolism. Among other things, you can freeze enemies - which is equivalent to taking a step back, counting to ten, etc. My favorite, though, was a powered-up head-on charge that let me tear through tens of enemies at once, as though I was a bowling ball and they were delicate, beautiful glass swans. Actually, I found it to be sort of an interesting reflection of myself, seeing as I tend to solve my problems as directly and straightforwardly as possible. But also, it's kind of completely overpowered.

The rest of the game's rock-solid - if a bit simple. Clicking baddies to death produces all sorts of flashy flips, comic-book-style effects, and camera angles, and dodges are satisfyingly responsive. There's a nice tension, too, in being hopelessly outnumbered - dodging synchronized hordes by the merest of hair's breadths - only to charge a power in the nick of time and obliterate everything.

SuperSight's short, simple, and by no means perfect, but it's quite satisfying in more ways than one. Sure, the message is kind of cheesy, but that doesn't make it ring any less true. It's nice to see games (fun ones, no less) trying to help us be better people. I think there's room for a lot more of that, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it happen.

Thanks for finding this one, Indie Statik.