In 2010, David Cage released an interactive adventure called Heavy Rain, which was memorable for (among other reasons) the fact that you could fail one of its scenes because you couldn't quite brush your teeth right or turn a doorknob. Those moments felt out of place and more than a little frustrating because of it, but now there's a whole game dedicated to such moments and it is coming to Nintendo Switch.
The game's premise is that you are a spoiled rich boy named Samuel who died in a car crash but got a new lease on life, courtesy of Death. If you want to avoid an early trip to hell, you have to survive an entire day while manually controlling your body's functions in a variety of scenarios.
"Players will have to deliberately manage Samuel's walking, blinking, exhaling, and inhaling if they're to guide this hilariously helpless human through an exciting day of getting dressed, drinking coffee, going to work, and navigating whatever hijinks ensue for a person incapable of peeing without the deepest of concentration and ninja-like reflexes," states a press release that was distributed earlier today.
Manual Samuel isn't a new game. It arrived on PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One in October of 2016, after all. But it is new to Nintendo hardware and it looks like just the sort of thing that could interest those who missed out the first time around.
Though Manual Samuel didn't delight critics when it made its unusual debut, it does seem particularly well suited for the Switch platform. There's even a co-op mode, so that two players can work together to guide Samuel's body through what seems like it would almost have to be a memorable day of chores we otherwise would classify as mundane.
Look for Manual Samuel to arrive on the Nintendo eShop on August 16, 2018. It's actually available right now for pre-purchase, with an MSRP of $9.99 USD, just in case you're that enthused about sparing Samuel that unfortunate trip to the afterlife.
