It wasn’t fromSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League(I mean, the 2.3 percent better ranged weapon damage? Come on), but instead one of the smaller games that I’m sure very few others even remember: Goodbye Volcano High. The game first appeared at the initial PS5 reveal way back in 2020, and all we’ve heard of it since then is a small tweet that delayed the game from its scheduled 2022 release. Last night, the fruity dinosaur music adventure returned with an expanded trailer that highlighted the rhythm mechanics and offered more gameplay clips, alongside a closer look at the characters.
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At the end of 2021, we at TheGamer did a collection of our ‘most anticipated’ games in various genres, and Goodbye Volcano High was in pretty much all of mine. It became a running joke; you play the role of Fang, so it’s an RPG. Fang ‘sports’ a killer tank top, so it’s a Sports Game. It was funnier at the time. The point is, for some reason this game got its fangs in me. It’s Life is Strange but dinosaurs, which is a helluva sell to me personally, but I adore its pastel style in a world of grim and gritty games, its messages of empathy and kindness in a medium that thrives on ‘might is right’ thinking, and its extremely relevant themes - for the dinosaurs, the world is literally ending thanks to an incoming meteor. But don’t young people today see the meteors of climate crisis, of rising costs, or food shortages, of poverty increase, of anti-LGBT legislation, of raging war across the world, all raining down on them at once?
I can be dismissive of these showcases, and I occasionally worry that it’s a detriment to my work. There are, I feel, too many enthusiasts in gaming media and across the content creator scene who will hype everything up as a must-play masterpiece, and that devalues the purpose of a critic. But at the same time, is my detached cynicism a performative act, where anything of value is dismissed in the pursuit of a self-invented journalistic integrity that requires me to love nothing about the medium I work in? Does a failure to swim in the passion of a community not also hinder my ability to see the power of the art I critique?
I will still go into the next showcase slightly wary, will still cool some of the hype that comes out of it, will still attempt to take the reveals as they come rather than as some inflated and imagined ideal - but maybe it’s okay to love a little. I can’t remember the last time I was really shocked at one of these things. I didn’t expect aMetroid Primeshadow drop, aHades 2reveal, aWonder Womangame, aDeath StrandingDirector’s Cut, but none of them gave me the ‘I love video games’ feeling, even though they’re all the sort of thing I’d like to both see and play.
In a way, I’m glad. I would rather overcorrect on the cynicism than swerve into the hype and mindlessly bray about loving everything, and I think my work is improved by the ability to keep my distance, even if that’s not always the most popular route to take. But just once, it’s nice to be swept away in it all. When Goodbye Volcano High launches in June, I’ll put my journalist hat back on and review it critically. Until then, it’s just nice to love again.
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