A surreal take on the point-and-click puzzle game, My Brother Ate My Pudding! blends an everyday, slice-of-life situation with increasingly weird challenges. You play as a little boy who has stolen his sister’s pudding. You now have to find places around the house where you can hide to escape her vengeance.
Each of the thirty levels takes place in a different room. At first, the hiding places are easy to spot, the sort of place you’d expect a cheeky little boy to hide: behind curtains and inside wardrobes. Gradually, though, the game becomes increasingly surreal. One level requires you to startle your mother and hide behind the exclamation that appears in a speech bubble above her head. Others feature inflating fruit and helpful giraffes and posing as your own grandfather.
This weirdness pushes you to think creatively. My Brother Ate My Pudding! isn’t designed to make sense. The very simple design of each level lulls you into a false sense of security. First, you assume the game is going to be very easy. Then, you start to think that the minimalism of it means everything you see is going to be a part of the puzzle. Then, your mother tells you off for playing on a game console that you didn’t need to click on at all.
There’s a great sense of humour infused into the game. From the way the sister screams to the silliness of the puzzles, My Brother Ate My Pudding! has a lovely sense of playfulness to it throughout.
Although the narrative is neither deep nor complex, there is a slight element of story to the game. It ramps gradually up to a surprisingly heart-warming ending.
My Brother Ate My Pudding! is not a long game and doesn’t offer any form of tracking your performance to offer incentive to replay it. However, it does come with a bonus game where you play as the sister, speed-running back through the levels to find the hidden brother.
My Brother Ate My Pudding! isn’t the most intellectually challenging or narratively complex game you’ll ever play. But it is certainly fun. The puzzles are weird and funny, and it is legitimately satisfying figuring out the more bizarre ones.
