Back from vacation and already providing a review, how’s that for a swell delivery service? I patiently awaited the chance to play ENA: Dream BBQ all the time I was away and when I got back and played it boy was I not disappointed. This is, of course, only a review of the first chapter as the other sections of this game are scheduled to come out at later points, however I have a feeling the other chapters will remain consistent with this one, so I shall let this review cover the whole experience for now. It’s also a shorter game, so expect a shorter review. Regardless, prepare your breeches and let’s get to this!
Story-wise, as this is based on an internet animation series, a bit of background. ENA, the character, is someone who lives inside an odd, digital world that consists of many strange characters and locations. In this game, she has a job! The job is simple, she needs to find the boss, in order to do so, she needs to get to a specific island. However, smoke is covering the entire area so she can’t get to it. For the duration of this chapter, we need to find the person responsible for creating the smoke and put a stop to it so we can find the boss. For an ENA experience, this is surprisingly lucid and understandable, even if the journey to complete this seemingly simple task is completely unhinged. You’ll be visiting and talking with vampires that are also penguins, old ladies that turn into skeletons, wizards, motherboards and so much more. It’s all meant to be nonsensical, and it certainly delivers on that. I am certainly curious how this will develop over the other chapters though, so consider me hooked! The characters are all wonderful to watch in motion and listen to, ENA herself is great and well acted by both her actors and overall this is exactly the kind of story I want from an ENA experience, very happy.
In terms of presentation, well, just look at it. The game is a spectacle of colours, animation styles, bizarre visuals and trippy music. It’s all exactly on brand, and that brand is complete lunacy. The 3D visuals of the world remind me of late 90’s exploration PC games and N64 titles, the cutscenes are all reminiscent of the old CDI Zelda games and everything is just a complete beautiful mess. It’s clear a lot of love and devotion went into this project just from how the game presents itself, and I adore it. Music too is great, featuring a lot of vaporwave, computer-nostagia music and so much more, it’s all just a wonderful spectacle to behold. If you want something to feast your eyes upon and show just how varied and creative those that love and work in video games can be, you can’t go wrong with this title.
Gameplay is a simple affair, mostly it consists of Fetch Quests, Puzzles and Platforming Challenges all meant to test basic pattern recognition and encourage exploration. The main draw of the gameplay though is just to see this beautiful world and interact with all the strange and quirky characters. The gameplay drives the player to the next enjoyable character interaction and cutscene, but it all works to provide an enjoyable experience that never left me feeling bored at all during my time with this title. Indeed, it even encouraged me to do a second playthrough as there are plenty of secrets, alternate endings, story paths and more to make it worth going through more than once, even if it’s just to be in this world once more. While it isn’t the most mechanically complex game, and it certainly won’t win any awards for innovative game design, it works for what it is trying to accomplish and I applaud it for that.
In terms of negatives, the only thing I can say about it (and it isn’t even a fair criticism due to this being a completely free experience) is that the game on a single playthrough is a bit short. You can get through one playthrough of the first chapter in a couple of hours if you want to explore, or even get it down to under an hour if you wanted to speedrun. However, considering this is only the first chapter and, again, it’s a FREE game, I’m not holding the length against it. The fact it also encourages multiple playthroughs helps even more to make this negative a moot point. I suppose you could also say if you don’t like nonsensical, bizarre or seemingly random-type games then this isn’t the experience for you, but that would mean you’re a rather boring person and I don’t want to talk to you.
Overall, boy am I glad I got to experience this. There’s so much more left to see, and I can’t wait for the next chapter to come out. If you love games, or art, or anything of the sort, this is a free, short experience that only asks for a small amount of your time in order to sell you an unforgettable experience. As an ENA fan, I am extremely happy, and I hope this encourages the fandom to grow and the main creator, Joel G, to find success in their projects. ENA: Dream BBQ is a masterpiece of a game, and no, I still don’t know what the title means, that’s just the ENA experience for you!