Aidsmoji: The Forbidden Fruit

”Is this memes?” -Jim Sterling

Produced by Bmc Studio, Aidsmoji: The Forbidden Fruit (AM) is an interactive narrative entailing three individuals primarily gesturing modern popular culture in an absurd fashion for a supposed comedic effect. Steve abides the role of protagonist while Jonny and Esky are the subjects of the title’s primary choice system. Before beginning, I must stress that I gained access to this title through Curator Connect. Out of all of the games on my Steam library, it is the only one that is not currently installed due to the opinions stated below.

Here are just a few topics of discussion regarding this title:

Presentation - With the format of an interactive experience, AM allows participants to choose between two scenes in a rigidly-structured selective fiction involving the three stated characters utilizing cultural references as the primary medium of comedy. Only three choices were made throughout this story from my experience and seemingly do not influence its natural progression substantially, nor do the ludicrous scenes appear to contain cohesiveness to any central plot. Each event appears to linger much longer after the intended comedic effect though said effect was rather ineffective from my perspective, described in further detail later. There are fundamental complications regarding basic format as well considering the landing page of the title does not appear to have a ‘Quit’ option: you have to Ctrl, Alt, Del out of it; this was of primary concern because it was the only thing I was truly looking forward to about this title after dredging through it.

Comedy - It is difficult to describe just how ineffective AM is at delivering the concept of humor. This title utilizes popular culture in such a way that it makes the title itself negatively self-referential. In regards to this, I do not intend to defend AM by saying it is, “So bad it is good,” because that is far from the case; it is a self-aware level of deficiency that prevents it from retaining any possible strengths due to not being able to stand on its own merits. For example, during a disconnected scene in which Jonny and Esky retrieve a cereal box, a tired reference is made even more so by the repeated lingering on a single line over the course of an estimated eight minutes. I cannot say that I do not understand what this title was attempting to achieve as I am certain I will be told by followers of this work, “You do not get it.” I get it, but it is not funny nor enjoyable. This is subjective, but from a title that is comedy-focused and narrative-driven, I personally cannot condone its purchase.

TL:DR - I cannot entirely fault a project among friends, but as a Curator on Steam this just does not feel right to recommend. With core programming issues that make quitting impossible without directly halting the program by exterior means, Aidsmoji: The Forbidden Fruit is a title that makes attempts at humor in a slap-dash tone that is ineffectively self-aware. Absurdity does not make comedy all of the time. I truly cannot recommend enough against AM. To the patrons of Bmc Studio I sincerely hope that this writing holds inspiration of improvements toward future projects. Thanks for reading.

Do you feel this review helped in any way? Feel free to visit my Curator Page at Spearpoint Reviews.
Originally posted on January 18, 2019.