Shower with your dad simulator 2015 | a Review
originally published on 11/09/2022;
Hello everyone, I am the possessor of a dad, G.E.M.Simov, a not-so-young lad who no longer showers with ‘is dad, here to tell you about ‘Shower with your dad simulator 2015’, henceforth Showerdad.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
This is a meme game. A shitpost game, if you will. As such, don’t expect amazing gameplay from it!
But let’s get into it. There are at least six different game modes in the game, which almost function like their own games - with the caveat that two of those game modes are nigh identical. Each is simple, even if it has a few little droplets of complexity.
There’s Endurodad, which features three dads (different) and one son, and the son needs to run up to his matching dad repeatedly, building up a high-score. There are power-ups which increase the points you get, or make it easier to recognize the correct dad, but don’t really change up the gameplay. The further into a round of Endurodad you go, the more difficult it becomes, due to the fact that obstacles start popping up - puddles that make you slip and move uncontrollably, or signs in which you trip and slow down tremendously. It’s simple, but not a bad simple. It is, however, not very entertaining.
Then there’s Dadathlon. Dadathlon is exactly like Endurodad, but instead of being a persistent son, the son changes to one of the three son after every dad is reached. The goal is to keep going for as long as you can, with there being a timer that runs out perpetually (and gets refilled when you reach the correct dad), ending the round if the timer runs out. The obstacles show up here as well, and there’s also a factor of shower-curtains showing up to hide the dads after a second, providing even more difficulty. This one is a tad more interesting than Endurodad, but it isn’t that impressive.
There’s Dad Division, following that. This one features all three sons, with the Player being able to switch between the three at will, and all three dads falling from the top of the screen, relatively slowly. The goal here is to switch to the correct son and grab the correct falling dad, without letting any dads fall to the ground. Dad Division is interesting, conceptually, but it has a few more issues than the preceding two. The main one is that whenever you change sons, the son stops moving for half a second after being changed. That really makes it harder to deal with the adventure, as the longer the round goes, the faster the dads fall down. In addition, one can’t move while grabbing a dad… So that’s that.
Soapico shows up next. That one is an interesting spin on things, mainly due to the fact that it is a Point&Click Adventure, lasting for a few minutes. Unfortunately, much like most Point&Click adventures, it sucks doodie, because the puzzles are horrendously nonsensical. You CAN pick up a puddle of water. You can pour hot water down the sink, which then makes the water in the shower hot as well. It’s interesting, true, but it’s got the nonsense and ridiculous: ‘you gotta know’ means of solving the puzzles to progress. Not a good look.
Following that, you get a gauntlet. The Dad with the Iron Shower is a challenge run which has you avoiding three sons running around the room randomly, and later on shurikens thrown at you by the showering dad (turret) in the center of the room. Just hold out for a certain amount of time and you’re golden.
Lastly, there’s Inglorious Bathdads. You are a son in a bathtub, and you’re constantly falling. You can alleviate the falling by pressing up, in which case you go up (as long as you’re pressing the up arrow). You can also shoot by pressing the right arrow. If you fall all the way down, you lose. The goal is to collect 69 of your dad, which happens by going through the incoming bathtubs with dads in them. Naturally, you want to go through the bathtub with your matching dad. Going through the bathtubs with other dads costs you a bit of a heart, and if you lose all your hearts, you lose. You CAN shoot the bathtubs down, but the shots can also hit your dad’s bathtub, and then you lose a bit of a heart too, so you’ve got to weigh your options. This one doesn’t feel good to play, because of the fact that you require a lot more precision than the controls seemingly afford you, and the shooting mechanic is very underwhelming.
These game modes, all of them, suffer from a big problem - the hitbox detection, or the collision detection, which determines if the character the Player is playing has run into something, is HORRIBLE. You (the Player) get hit by things that don’t look as though they are actually touching your character at all. It’s quite stinky.
There are also some minor ‘mini-games’ that can appear in between each of the game-modes (while the latter are loading) which feature doing menial things… Those’re very boring.
Overall, Showerdad is a joke game with decent-ish gameplay. 2/3
Presentation
Pixel-art of a relatively middling quality, with audio that is WAY too loud, but, other than that, a solid presentation. Everything that needs to be seen by the Player is seen by the Player, everything that the Player needs to be aware of is made obvious and easily accessible for the Player’s eyes, meaning that there are rarely any moments that provide beffudlement…
Safe for one very important aspect. The three pairs of dads and sons, those being Thomas & Magnum, who have the exact same color scheme, Richard & Lefty, who have the exact same color scheme, and Johnnie & Robin, who have different colors. In fact, Robin - the son - looks staggeringly close, color-wise, to Magnum, safe for his hair. That’s a problem, and it doesn’t seem to make any sense to me as to why the developers decided not to make Robin pale and red-haired like his dad, Johnnie.
The fact is that sometimes, in the spur of the moment, mistakes get made due to the fact that the Player might see the color and think that this is Magnum, when, in reality, it’s Robin. Aside from that, though, and the obnoxiously loud music, there’s nothing I can think of that would be sub-par in the realm of Presentation.
It must be noted that this game is meant to be a funny game. A meme game, if you will, with it taking liberties in the depictions of certain things, with it utilizing puns, visual humor and dad jokes to convey ‘the funny’. It is amusing, but not really funny, as are most parodies. 2/3
Story
Due to the fact that there are a few games in this one - the game modes - there are also a few stories to go with, by the looks of it.
The story of Endurodad, Dadathlon and Dad Divisions seems to be that a bunch of dads and their sons have gone to a shower room - maybe after going to the pool, or prior to going to the pool - so they need to shower. Unfortunately, the son takes a bit longer to get undressed, and his dad goes in the showers first, so the son needs to find his dad. Very simple, very bare-bones, but it is what one would gather, right? In reality, it isn’t explicitly stated, so that’s just conjecture.
The story of Soapico is conveyed through a few text boxes and the Point&Click Adventure that follows. The hot water isn’t working, so the detective needs to fix it up. Again, much like the previous trio, there’s little rhyme or reason to there being a story at all, but there is one nonetheless. It’s mostly used as a means of parodying both the Point&Click Adventure genre AND the Noir Film.
The story of The dad with the Iron Shower is a bit funkier. The child finds the Iron Shower - and the dad under it - and by doing so expresses its will to become one of the dad with the Iron Shower’s sons. Then, the child must prove itself before the dad with the iron shower. Simple as, but it is a decently neat prelude to it.
Then, there’s Inglorious Bathdads. This one seems to be the son’s imagination as he plays in a bathtub with his dad occasionally coming in to join him but then going out for whatever reason.
Overall, you might be getting the point. There is some semblance of story, but it’s just there, and it’s mostly what the Player makes of the few droplets of presentation. In addition to that, though, there are a few secrets. At least a few. And those almost contribute to making a story up… But it’s not that phenomenal. 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? NO, it does not. Not only because of how underwhelming it is, but also because there are three whole achievements that seem broken and don’t get obtained as they should be getting obtained. It’s just wildly stupid and I hate the fact that there are nigh-UNOBTAINABLE achievements. Excuse you, screw yourself while I customize my experience to make things as I desire them to be. 0/1
Conclusion
5/10. Feels as though that might be too high, but it is what it is. This was an interesting joke product that did amuse me for a bit. Some of the game modes were engaging enough to warrant properly playing them to completion, whilst others featured the “what comes next?” nudge. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, though. Maybe as a joke gift?
In the bag of mediocrity it goes. Let it gather dust and let it fail to be upsetting to those who craved completion. Damn it.