Bad Cheese, the review of the Disney-esque horror

What would happen if Resident Evil 7 and 1920s Mickey Mouse met?
I don't know if anyone has ever truly asked themselves this question, but most likely, in a completely bizarre and unexpected way, Bad Cheese would emerge; a horror game developed by Simon Lukasik and published by FearDemic.

Bad Cheese is a psychological horror that follows the trend of products born from the expiration of the rights to the short film Steamboat Willie, which made the first version of Mickey Mouse public domain, skillfully weaving a story around him that has little to do with the happy and innocent atmosphere of the Disney short.

This is because Bad Cheese's other inspiration is also what gives it its name; namely, the common idea that eating cheese before bed can cause vivid dreams, which in the case of bad cheese - bad cheese - can turn into real nightmares.

And what the protagonist of Bad Cheese experiences might seem like a nightmare, but unfortunately, it's the daily life of a child who masks the toxicity surrounding him with elements of his fantasy, now widely violated, with the intention of hiding something worse.

Between Violence and Trauma. The Plot of Bad Cheese

Bad Cheese puts us in the shoes of a child with a familiar appearance who wanders through the dimly lit corridors of a house, where chairs and alcohol bottles fly - for real - through the air.
His mother has gone away for the weekend and has left a series of messages around to help the child clean the house so as not to anger his father.
Thus, we find ourselves washing dishes, tidying socks, and polishing shoes; all with the fear that every single mistake could lead to unpleasant consequences.

The figure of the father, or rather his representation in the child's eyes, will then become an oppressive and unsettling presence, and might lead you to mistakenly believe that this family's problems are limited to him.

Well, that's not the case.
Bad Cheese will guide you by the hand to discover a reality much more desolate than it seems and capable of creating monsters where innocence slowly disappears.

Bad Cheese Gameplay

With controller in hand, Bad Cheese is a minimalist game, based on simple commands but inserted into ever-changing contexts, which ensures the game never becomes boring.
The various sections offer a bit of everything; from shooting socks with a machine gun to facing an enemy with a potato gun, without disdaining some stealth sections or mazes where you'll have to sharpen your wits to get out; all with the addition of various environmental puzzles.
The pattern is more or less always the same; each level will take you to a different setting and present you with a new gameplay mechanic with which you will have to overcome the various challenges that stand before you.

In each level, there are also a series of collectibles to find: the child's dolls to search for and the various snacks - bags of chips and kielbasa (aka Polish sausages) - hidden around.

Disney-esque Horror. The Technical Aspect of Bad Cheese

It is certainly in its design that Bad Cheese has its greatest strength. Simon Lukasik seized the opportunity of Steamboat Willie's rights expiring and built a grotesque and macabre design upon that already unsettling aesthetic.

Through a skillful use of the black and white style, Bad Cheese plays heavily on creating a sense of asphyxiation in the player, and this succeeds perfectly when you find yourself in the corridors of the house and the lighting is scarce.

All of this is then surrounded by the deformed and unsettling creatures that emerged from the developer's mind and are structured in 2D; which further conveys a strong sense of detachment from reality in the character's head: incidentally, the game also contains a digital artbook that tells the entire creative process of the game and which for some might be worth the price alone.

The design choices are then accompanied by voice acting that is decidedly high-level for an indie, especially considering that the vocal tones used are not exactly conventional.
The game also holds its own in terms of the environmental sound design, which manages to make the player feel the sense of dirt and disgust in the air.
To enjoy the best gaming experience, I recommend playing Bad Cheese with 3D headphones, which will help you immerse yourself fully in this concert of decay, gurgling sewage, and disturbing metallic sounds.

A Horror Experience That Plays With the Player's Anxiety

Bad Cheese presents itself as a horror game, but its goal is not to scare, but rather to create a strong sense of inadequacy.
The goal is perfectly achieved because the player is placed in a context, the domestic one, which in theory should be synonymous with safety for a child but which from the outset suggests that something is wrong.

The themes addressed by the developer are not trivial and are inserted in a masterful way. Physical and psychological violence, eating disorders, abandonment, and the other profound themes the game deals with are never directly mentioned or discussed, despite being omnipresent on screen.

There is a constant sense of danger in the air, made disturbing by the main character's words who almost normalizes his family's attitudes and speaks of himself as a superhero ready to prevent any escalation.

But reducing the experience of Bad Cheese to the figure of the ogre father does not do the game justice. Every element has its place and its meaning. There are the father's friends who have no problem making fun of the protagonist, whose body is shaped by eating disorders that lead him to eat to reduce stress, there is the presence/absence of the brother, whose whereabouts are unknown, up to a mother who seems to have more faults than one might think.

Despite the shortcomings that an indie production of this kind carries, such as perhaps overly superficial gameplay and a short duration, the biggest criticism I feel I can level at Bad Cheese is that it rushes too much at the end.

This rush translates into a "final boss" which, despite being satisfying in the protagonist's inner and psychological interpretation, fails to satisfy on a gameplay level; and even narratively speaking, it leaves too many doors open without putting an end to the story, which is a deliberate choice by the developer, but might leave a slight bitter taste in the player's mouth.

Bad Cheese is an experience that, for the themes it addresses and its design choices, deserves to be played. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it has the courage to unite two worlds, that of innocence and domestic violence, which in reality should never even intersect.
If you are a fan of horror or are looking for a game that won't take up too much of your time, then you should give Bad Cheese a chance.