[Review] Buddy Simulator 1984 - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: Not a Sailor Studio
Published By: Feardemic
Categories: Simulator, Horror
Release Date: 10.27.22

I can understand that during times like this, you might get lonely. Well good thing Buddy Simulator 1984 exists! With your digital buddy, you can play games like Hangman or Rock Paper Scissors or even number guessing! And maybe a little more…

See, maybe your buddy gets a little too attached, he might ask for control of your machine and then fiddle around to make new games. To me, at least as a console version of a game, Buddy Simulator 1984 has one of the most unfortunate intros, and somewhat of a road block. It’s short, but you start the game with text prompts and then a text adventure. All typing one letter by one (with autofill if you need). On a PC with a keyboard, no biggy, but here it’s not exactly pleasant.

That said, I didn’t mind the intro so much. There’s an atmosphere at play. A creepy one. But the game truly opens up as soon as the gameplay style changes. It’ll do this twice and boy does the game get so much better and creative once this happens. From a text adventure into an RPG? All your buddy wants to do is make you happy :).

You’ll encounter the strange, the horrific, and maybe the mundane. It feels like one of those quirky RPGs you see by indie devs a lot, which I admittedly am a fan of. You can help people out if you want, if you’re having fun. Or just skip it if your buddy gets the vibe you’re not into the game. I’d suggest you not do this though as you’d miss so much of what the game in the game has to offer. And it does get pretty creepy at times. Including carrying something bit grimy…ewww…You can pet the dog by the way.

The game switches styles twice, with those last two being some nice retro spritework going on, more or less monochrome. I was never into PC gaming (or alive) from back then, but seeing attempts to recreate it is fascinating to me. This is very much a style I enjoy, and it doesn’t just seem like lazy spritework.

Buddy Simulator 1984 is more of an experience. An experience that doesn’t open up for console players for a bit longer than most are willing to put up with, but please stick through it. Use a guide for the text adventure parts, because everything after is so good.