14 DAY TRIAL // 
The 1960s have been a little bit of a Golden Age for sci-fi literature. During a span of about ten years, masterpieces like Solaris, The Man in the High Castle, Babel-17, A Wrinkle in Time, and Dune were published. Most of these sci-fi masterpieces have already been adapted for TV, but some have also become incredibly popular games that shaped many gamers’ tastes.
Mothmen 1966 is a visual novel that draws inspiration from mid-20th century pulp fiction and pays homage to home computer graphics from the 80s. Argentinian developer LCB Game Studio calls this a “Pixel Pulp,” a visual novel that blends writing and visuals akin to those periods of time.
This is a very short visual novel in the same vein as Ray Bradbury’s collection of short stories, although the style is completely different. You’ll be solving puzzles and dive deep into a not-so-hard to figure out mystery throughout 10 well-paced chapters that should take you around two and a half hours to finish.
In Mothmen 1966, you’ll take on the role of three different characters, each with their own personalities: Holt, a gas station owner, Lee and Victoria, a college-aged couple who struggle with their relationship. A few other important characters appear in the game, but you won’t be involved in how they act throughout the game.
The plot revolves around a real-life astronomical event, the Leonid meteor shower. Although this is visible every year, every 33 years a bigger meteor shower can occur. The astronomical event usually happens on or around November 18, when a trail of dust left behind by the comet Tempel-Tuttle reaches Earth.
It’s also common knowledge that the Leonid meteor shower produced one of the biggest meteor storms ever known back in 1966. The visual novel piggybacks on this major astronomical event but introduces some interesting sci-fi aspects that make it worthy of a playthrough.
Almost most of the gameplay involves simply reading and admiring the pixel images, you’re often presented with some choices and puzzles. Once you enter a certain trajectory, every choice you make might mean sudden death. On the bright side, you can pick up from where you left off immediately, so you can experiment with various choices until you get the puzzles right.
Speaking of which, I did not find the puzzles hard at all, but some of them require you to die at least once to figure out the solution. There are a few that I found obnoxious because of the pixelated art style, but, thankfully, there aren’t many that require perfect alignment of pictures.
Moving on to the juiciest part of the game, the writing, I’ve been enjoying every minute of Mothmen 1966, although the ending left me wanting more. Because it’s a very short story, characterization lacks almost completely, although we do get glimpses of each character’s goals, feelings and values. From this glimpses, all three protagonists seem deeply complex, but it’s like they’re missing their background sheets.
Overall, I enjoyed the twist on the Leonid meteor shower, despite the abrupt ending and the, sometimes, awkward puzzles. As far as the art style goes, if you love pixelated graphics, you’re going to like Mothmen 1966. One thing that didn’t really vibe with me was the soundtrack, but the rest of the sound design felt pretty much spot on.
The Good
- Good writing, interesting characters
- Sound design perfectly adds to immersion
- Nice, pixelated art style
The Bad
- Soundtrack is a mixed bag
- Controls can be frustrating at times
- Unsatisfying ending
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a short sci-fi story with some horror elements and good writing, Mothmen 1966 is more than serviceable. Even though some choices lead to different outcomes, these are too minor to warrant another second playthrough, unless you want to know every bit of lore.
Review key was provided by the publisher.
