Bad Cheese

Bad Cheese is a short psychological horror game that aims to evoke the chilling experience of keeping an abusive parent in a good mood. It has a great, old-school aesthetic, but could benefit from refining its pacing, mechanics and depth of storytelling to offer its fullest impact.

Bad Cheese isn't perfect, but it's clever and creative. Its campaign may be brief, its puzzles uneven, and its controls a bit rough, but its art and sound make it linger in your mind long after the credits roll.

A brief, pacey and regularly unsettling pastiche of Steamboat Willie, Bad Cheese will unfortunately stop short of sending a shiver down your spine. For fans of teen-horror, it’s still worth a few hours of your time, but its rigid structure and lack of real depth will prevent it from joining the horror classics.

Bad Cheese feels like it’s a perfect fit for the YouTube/Twitch era of gaming. I have no doubt that if you’re the kind of person who likes to watch other people stream their games, it might be fun. But as far as playing it yourself goes, it’s a whole lot less interesting.

Bad Cheese is a truly unique experience that has a fantastic art style that is clearly inspired by the early days of cartoons. I’d liken it to a mash-up between Steamboat Willie and Cuphead. The storyline is what kept me playing through this, with some emotionally heavy narrative and unsettling gameplay that has you on edge. Whilst the game is super short at around 4-5 hours to finish, it is quality rather than quantity. Whilst I was left wanting more, I felt satisfied with its runtime, but the replay value is limited since there aren’t any alternative paths or endings that I am aware of. For the reasonable price of £10.74, it’s worth buying.

Absolutely a weird experience, with the classic animation look helping to prop up gameplay that can be a bit hit or miss overall

Bad Cheese is nothing more than a game that simply exists, mediocre and uninteresting, making the experience less memorable than a good retro horror like Alisa or Fear the Spotlight, but simply boring and uncreative, not even worthy of pity. Mickey's first real cartoon was Plane Crazy, a cartoon not as well-remembered as Steamboat Willie, and I assume that will be the fate of Bad Cheese: forgotten in its own empty sarcasm.

Bad Cheese thrives on its stunningly digusting art style, but only its art style. In comparison, its gameplay is dull and overlooks a stealth focus that could have made its horror and story themes shine. And by the time the game picks up the pace, it's already finished.

Bad Cheese is a creatively important game and one that many will love, especially those who enjoy the 1920s cartoon visual style. I do think the gameplay gets a bit samey, doesn’t quite click at times, and feels a bit stiff. But the number of tasks you can action, and the machines that you get to operate and play with, are a lot of fun.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Bad Cheese and would recommend it to anyone who likes things on the weirder side of life. However, without the ability to chapter select, any missed collectibles means a completely new playthrough, which might be a turn off for completionists.