The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo
Platform: Javascript
The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo (hosted here with kind permission... visit the official site of the author!) is the newest piece of creepy interactive horror fiction from Michael Lutz, creator of the stellar My Father's Long, Long Legs. Taking more of a Choose Your Own Adventure route this time around, in the game you're spending the night at your best friend's house, something you do all the time. Tonight, though, things are a little different. A little strange, even. And when midnight rolls around, you're going to be getting a very special visitor. See, your friend's uncle works for Nintendo, and while many a playground kid may make claims like that to get attention, this time there's actually some truth to it. So you should be excited when he shows up... right? Just click the bolded red text to make your choices, and once the game moves to the den in your friend's house, the things you do will have an impact on time as it passes. There are five different endings to unlock, and make sure to play with your sound on for the full effect. Occasionally you may need to wait a little for text to appear, and... things... might happen to your browser, but all of this is perfectly normal. Ish.
The basic premise behind The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo is likely a familiar one, since kids have been claiming to have secret inside information for schoolyard popularity for years. When I was in junior high, there was the kid who insisted his uncle worked for Squaresoft (which it was, y'know, back in the day) and there was a sneaky, overly complicated way to revive a certain Final Fantasy character. Michael Lutz's tale is decidedly a lot more out there than a kid looking for attention, but that grounding in reality gives it a wonderful urban legend flair. The increased interactivity over his other work allows for more exploration, keeping you coming back again and again to see what's different this time, what other things you could try, what secrets you may uncover. Little touches are buried here and there in the narrative, growing in frequency and weirdness as you play, that begin to fill you in on just what's going on, rather than being spoonfed a pile of backstory. As in My Father's Long, Long Legs, the use of sound here crafts a fantastic environment, and the story unsettles and unnerves rather than relying on jumpscares or the grotesque. The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo wouldn't have been out of place on an episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, and is engrossing, scary, compelling, and even a little bittersweet in all the right ways.
Spectacular game! Don't stop until you find all SIX endings.
I got five of the six endings -- couldn't get number 3, for some reason?
Interesting game. Interesting author's notes too -- worth playing for.
Unless each of the endings is supposed to end in a nonstop stream of incoherent text that starts out as "bad expression" before returning you to the title screen, there's something not playng right at all.
I got ending 3
"exit" by asking about the uncle as soon as the mom mentioned him and pressing the issue into a fistfight, then calling mom with enough time for the babysitter to reach the house before the uncle.
justme: Some of the endings do that. Try
calling your mom by 11 and going home.
Wow...after getting all six endings and reading the notes, I actually had to sit back for a few minutes and absorb what I just experienced. Well done, Mr. Lutz!
OK, everyone says the ending is worth it, but I'm starting to doubt that. I managed endings 1-3
1: follow to the door
2: hide in the bathroom
3: call mom before 11
but I can't figure out 4-6. And I'm sorta bored with going through the whole dang thing over and over again. So, a bit of guidance, please?
Wait, there are six endings? I'm assuming the sixth one is unlocked after completing the other five? I've only found the first three. I keep going back through trying to find the other ones and it's getting a little tiresome. Anyone have some hints for those?
Ending Four:
Remember your friend's Mew. Click on all the red text in the paragraphs to unlock memories of the storm and the fact that your friend used to live next door to you.
Next, talk to your friend about games. Be supportive of them throughout the conversation, tell them you should have stood up for them. This will make them remember that you care about them.
Once their mother comes to tell you about the uncle arriving, ask your friend about the uncle and get confrontational. Tell them you don't believe their uncle works at Nintendo. Don't fight back when they attack you, just take it.
Talk to your friend about the storm. They'll admit the truth about the uncle. Follow the conversation path through until you get the prompt to punch them or just say you want to go home. Pick either one, it doesn't matter. Call your mom, beg her to send the sitter, and then don't let your friend convince you to stay.
Afterwards, when you return to their house, DO NOT PICK UP THE GAMEBOY.
Ending Five:
Do the same things as in Ending Four, but pick up the Gameboy.
Ending Six
This is only available after you get all the other endings. Do whatever you want, just stay until the uncle arrives. When he does, hide in the kitchen. I know you're not allowed to, the idea is that you're breaking the script. You'll get a prompt to "do it anyway".
From here it should be fairly intuitive what you have to do. Just remember to be supportive of your friend and remind them that you care about them. That the uncle is weak, and they are strong, and that they are not alone. You'll get through it okay.
Working from memory, the endings are:
Meet the Uncle at the door
Try to hide from the Uncle and fail
Leave with Mom without having gotten your friend to open up to you. I think this one leads to the family moving away.
Leave with Mom after having gotten the friend to open up to you. This leads to the house burning down. Then given the choice of taking the Gameboy that you find in the rubble. One ending for taking it, one ending for not.
That's the five main endings. The sixth ending isn't numbered, but just like the others when you click it before reaching it, you get a clue. For this one you have to not run away, you have to go where you aren't supposed to, etc. In this one you, in a very clever way, have to battle with your friend against the uncle and try to beat him. The nature of the game when you are playing for this ending is QUITE different from the others, and is definitely worth the effort.
actually ending six can be gotten so long as you've done ending 5, i believe -- i never actually got ending 4 myself, accidentally, and still got the 6th ending
in other news this game is amazing and well-timed and beautifully done and if it was legal, i would probably marry it. the author's notes are well worth the read, too
i need to replay it a bit to see if there's any specific differences when you give your friend a masculine name vs a feminine name
six endings
only if you're really stuck, then you look at them, cause it's so worth it to find it out yourself. there's no specific thing you need to get first for any of them, just click the right one
1. Undefined Error
greet the uncle
2. Run
when the uncle comes, hide somewhere
3. Exit
leave before 11
4. All Unsaved Data Will Be Lost
get your friend mad, flinch, then ask about the storm. when you investigate the house don't take the gameboy
5. Do You Want to Continue?
do the same thing, but take the gameboy this time
6. New Game
go to the kitchen at 12
As a person whose aunt would occasionally stay the night at my house before continuing to some business thing, I can confirm that there is nothing weird about your friend's uncle staying when he visits because of his work for Nintendo.
Your friend says different things when you talk about games depending on if your friend is male or female.
Ending
If you click the different endings, they give hints on how to find them or what they were when you found them.
But if you want specifics, I found ending five.
When your friend goes to hit you, flinch. Then ask about the storm.
Your friend will be shocked that you remember.
Phone home.
You know you are on the right path if when you leave your friend does not.
Take the game.
@vamoosi: If you give the friend a female name, choosing to talk about games with your friend opens a sequence on women in gaming. Specifically:
Choose any option for what you like about games, then choose any option except changing the topic for a few lines until you get to a sequence about how "girls don't play videogames." After finishing that, apologize for not standing up for your friend, then say you should do so, and choose any of the options given. She then thanks you for supporting her.
Once I unlocked the sixth ending, I was happy to find that the author's notes elaborated on the issue.
That's the only difference I've found based on having a male vs. female friend.
I tried to play the game, but all I get is this message:
WOW! I am glad so many people want to play this game, but unfortunately my hosting can't handle the load. Please be patient while I work on a solution, and thanks for your interest!
Michael
@WarrenIsDead
yeah, i only ever bothered assigning the friend feminine names because i realized as i played it that i didn't care about boys. oops
i just wasn't sure if there'd be some kind of difference to the endings or whatever if your friend was a boy? not that i really WANTED that to happen or whatever, i was simply curious hehe
I really like this game, but I didn´t know that it has a sixth ending, I gonna try it again!
I found this wonderful page some days ago....for creators and administrators...you are doing a great work people!!!
Sorry, my englisn is not very good
Wow, playing through all of the endings before going for the sixth ending is totally worth it. This is a great game!
Bug bug
Going to the kitchen at 8pm, got
Error executing macro stopsound: InvalidStateError: An attempt was made to use an object that is not, or is no longer, usableError executing macro stopsound: InvalidStateError: An attempt was made to use an object that is not, or is no longer, usable Passing through the empty dining room, you enter the kitchen, which is also deserted right now.
I have FF/XP
Are there other character sets we need for this game? because I keep getting tons of gibberish at the end, like if I didn't have a font installed or something. Example--
˄ſ̳ɎÅʅČɴ˓
Shugdog,
The gibberish is intentional. The sixth ending allows you to translate some of it.
Regarding the availability of the sixth ending,
It will unlock as long as you have the fifth. I got the fifth before I got the fourth, but it allows you to replay to get any endings you missed.
Something some people may miss on the way to the sixth ending:
If you've got the fifth ending, and you go into the kitchen between the beginning and the delivery of the popcorn, you will meet your friend's fake parents. Which unlocks some interesting dialogue.
Mmm... no, it doesn't seem intentional.
Because it's also breaking the formatting that the game itself sets, scrolling off the bottom of the page of a fullscreen presentation. It gives those blank rectangle things, not just random characters. Though I'm no whiz, it looks like a spew of unsupported characters, not intentional gibberish. Those sound file errors are also all over the game, and it's mucho distracting.
I can guess what effect they're going for... and this doesn't seem like this is it. Should this effect be happening in the first lines, too?
Also,
when your friend tells you about the uncle, if you mention her brother, she says that her brother said that she couldn't be appreciative enough about the cool stuff she was getting because she's a girl
.
Another thing I found when replaying: there is a purple cube in your friend's cabinet. Is that a Gamecube?
Why can't I play it? It says
"This passage does not exist: Start"
-LaLa-
Shudog -
Pretty much the entire game breaking up is intentional. Whenever there is red lines printing in computer code, it's intentional. All the broken language and whatnot is also intentional.
It makes a lot more 'sense' when you play through all six endings. The game breaks up even further when you try to go for the sixth ending, but take it in stride. Understand what this "uncle" is, and, yes, break that fourth wall.
As someone who dabbles in computing language and gaming in general, I do applaud what the game is trying to do. It does take quite a jump to understand what's going on, but the story it writes more than makes up for it.
I really enjoyed the game, but found the author's commentary and intended message to be too heavy-handed and, frankly, extreme.
He seemed to suggest that a hobby in video games was mutually exclusive to healthy interpersonal relationships, and that the solution was complete abandonment over moderation.
This is ironic in that you are bonding with your friend over video games over the course of the game, an activity that many people (myself included) enjoy with people of both genders every week. This is also ironic given that the author was using the medium of video games to present this very message.
It's possible the author did not intend for such an extreme interpretation, but his notes don't seem to offer any quarter. His perceived endorsement of Leigh Alexander's "gamers are dead" article in particular was disappointing, since it supports that same interpretation in a more vulgar and hateful way.
It makes me hesitant to share this game with mixed company for fear that I will be interpreted as endorsing the opinion that games can only ever be a negative force, and that anything other than a casual interest is synonymous with being sociopath.
This is most disappointing because the overall message is very good - that there is hostility against women in games (both subtle and extreme), and that obsession with anything (including games) can be dangerous. The structure of the game is also excellent such that it would be a worthwhile play even without an underlying message (which makes it all the better of a title to carry a message). The game seems to skip over the possibility of nurturing the good of the medium while carefully extracting the bad actors for their bad behavior and just skips straight to destroying it, illustrated by the binary choice of choosing your friend or the video game, and the cracked gameboy in the closing screen.
I did like that it gives hints to the undiscovered endings. The concept was also excellent and even as I realized what was going on I was eager to learn what would happen next. I also like that it was not necessary to get all the endings before getting the sixth ending. The faint (and often recognizable) video game tunes that play in the background at once give a sense of familiarity and uneasiness that works really well to set the mood.
It tells its story quickly, only using what time is necessary to set the mood and then execute the reveal, respecting my time.
@SirNiko: On the message being too heavy-handed, I interpreted
"no more games" as meaning no more of those games, or perhaps no more messing around, not necessarily in its literal sense.
But you have a point. And as for the music, one of the most disturbing moments for me was suddenly realizing that the background at that moment was a bunch of sounds straight out of Ocarina of Time.
A game that attempts to full-screen my browser without asking for permission is immediately closed and never played again.
I assume from reading that the ending I was heading towards was me dying in a closet.
Sorry you didn't like the game, though I did warn you in the review things would happen to your browser, as does the link to content warnings on the game's page. :)
Except you aren't bonding with your friend while you are playing games.
You just sit there and watch them play and try and engage them in conversation which ends semihorribly, or you play the game by yourself or you co-play with no conversation. And overarching all of this is the fact that the ONLY reason you are even at your supposed 'friends' house is so that UNCLE will take and obliterate/murder/whatever you, instead of your supposed friend.
I am curious as to why you not only ignore those basic facts but take the additional step of trying to twist them into an entirely different story which is absolutely nothing like what actually takes place during the game. I have some ideas on that one.
[Spoiler tags added. Please refrain from posting plot spoilers about the game without using them. Thanks! - Dora]
@Joe Gordon:
I agree there wasn't much bonding on the in-game day; there was just a lot of hostility and disconnect between the kids due to one being suddenly well-off and better at everything. There was a lot of implied bonding though. The kids had been friends for a while, and had a lot of sleepovers and gaming at recess. It was mainly the uncle that caused the disconnect. From that, I think bonding through video games was still a major theme.
About your other point, recall that the friend was told during the night that the uncle would be visiting. He wasn't planning on sacrificing the main character ahead of time, so it couldn't have been the ONLY reason for the sleepover.
Also please don't be so hostile towards sirNiko. This is just a discussion, no need to make things personal.
This was a fantastic experience. A really great example of why interactive fiction is incomparable to other genres for better and worse.
You're warned up front about it both here and on the game site itself. This rather calls to mind complaining about getting wet at the pool.
I played a few endings but am really not sure what this whole game is about and who this 'uncle' is or what's happening with the family at all.
Can someone explain the whole premise/plot of this game please? I am very confused.
Hi there!
The story is basically a Lovecraftian horror twist on a common playground brag. "I have an uncle who works for Nintendo/Sony/Square Enix" is a fairly typical lie kids tell other kids to get attention, usually while making up some sort of game secrets only they could know because, well, they have "insider information". In this game, however, it's true, sort of. Your friend has found an entity that promises them everything (as the text says, "all the best games, all the secrets, and a family that can provide them"), but your friend has to feed that entity with other kids to keep it happy. Because of its power, nobody else remembers the kids who disappear, and in the game, as you unlock more endings, you start to remember, and potentially are able to do something about it. The whole story is basically about a little kid whose lonely and bored unwittingly making a pact with a big evil they don't really understand, and then being unable to stop, and some of the endings offer you the opportunity to set things right.
Agreed! The author notes offer even greater depth to the game, for those interested! I look forward to replaying for ending 6 again. The first time through the special ending, I think I instinctively felt some of what the author was trying to get at. Seeing "it"** consciously articulated was highly gratifying.
"it" = the monster
Great work, easily five stars from me. :)
On my next playthrough... (BIG SPOILERS)
I intend to try a "selfish" version of ending 6 just to see if the friend can't be saved even though you save yourself after taking the Gameboy. (If I succeed though, I already know I'm going to feel so guilty I'll have to play it through a third time to save the friend again, lol. There are a lot of response variations that I haven't tried yet though, so that's fine.)
SCAARY.
I got ending 3 on my own because
It's the wimpy ending where I don't have to face the scary monster :). I'm such a baby. And that one was unnerving enough.
And then on my second play through I
figured out my friend had a brother, stayed until the uncle got there, and then hid in the linen closet. And then when
I started seeing messages like POOR POOR CHILD and it was coming up on my hiding place I started getting scared. But I didn't close the browser till I read that something was coming to get me and it had no hands. I just couldn't. No. Not with the threat of full screen and scary visuals. So I don't know what ending I was about to get.
I'd just like to know which of the endings
creepily full-screens the browser, because I'd be fine using my imagination to guess how that one plays out.
Chills. Tingles. Totally worth it. Excellent, excellent, excellent! Even after reading spoilers beforehand I stayed on the edge of my seat. Maybe someday I'll finish...when it's light outside :).
I wish i could play it i keep getting 404 error anyway to fix this?
Hi there! Sorry you're having problems, but I'm not sure why you'd be encountering that. All the links work fine both in Firefox and Chrome. You may have some sort of extension installed that could be interfering, or you could have a problem with your cache or connection. Try clearing your cache, restarting your browser or trying a different one, and disabling any extra plugins or extensions if that doesn't work.
I tried it on 3 different browsers it doesn't not sure why
I love the fact that after finishing the game, I went to close the tab and a dialogue box came up saying "you are about to end this story (leave page) (stay on page)" It caught me offguard in the best way possible. When it says the game messes with your browser it really means it!
Links are broken for me. I'm viewing in Firefox.
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