Octodad: Dadliest Catch preview: backyard shenanigans

It turns out that just about anything can be funny if you make a giant octopus do it, as I found out when I went hands-on with Octodad: Dadliest Catch a second time at this year's IndieCade.

Ozzie Mejia

October 7, 2013 2:00 PM

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When I last got my hands on Octodad: Dadliest Catch, I found myself reliving Octodad's wedding day with predictably hilarious results. Even a task as simple as trying to put on a neck tie was a total comedy of errors. At this year's IndieCade, I got to take a look at a day in the life of Octodad.

I started out by waking up in Octodad's bed and waking up to his human wife asking him to do some basic chores. Of course, there's nothing basic about Octodad's life, as fetching items from the kitchen proves to be a lot harder than it should--and I mean that in the best way. Octodad's movements remain the game's best feature, as watching him flop around to complete basic tasks is still enough to draw in crowds and get them all laughing.

The rest of Octodad's day doesn't get much easier. Every father should know how to grill and you'd think Octodad would be no different. But trying to grill and serve burgers amounts to Octodad clumsily trying to grab patties with the DualShock 4's shoulder buttons and analog sticks, before sliding around the picnic table in a futile effort to reach the placed hamburger buns. It should be noted that through all this, Octodad's human children are simply sitting at the table with their heads buried in books, occasionally reeling off a few lines of text in an effort to carry on a regular conversation. In other words, this is all perfectly normal to them, which is another part of what makes Dadliest Catch so funny.

After lunch is served, it's time for some yard work. Octodad must mow the lawn, which means he has to rummage the tool shed looking for the lawnmower. After wondering who put all those balls in the shed and shaking them off his tentacles, Octodad proceeded to mow the lawn in another awkwardly hilarious sight gag. After hanging up a nearby birdhouse, it looked like Octodad's day was finished.

This is where a little bit of story started to take over. The demo ended with Octodad's fence getting knocked over by the game's antagonist, the Chef. The Chef has this wacky idea that Octodad is secretly a giant octopus. I know! Crazy talk! The clearly delusional restaurateur wants to seize Octodad and make him part of the dinner menu, setting the stage for some tension down the line.

Young Horses continues to take an absurd concept and keep running with it by injecting humor into everyday situations. It turns out that just about anything can be funny if you make an anthropomorphic octopus do it. Octodad: Dadliest Catch should be out later this year.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?