UNUSUAL FINDINGS: An 80s Adventure Game About Three Kids and an Alien Attack

Unusual Findings is a point-and-click indie adventure game that is being produced by Epic Llama and distributed by Buka Entertainment. The game demo was published on the October 7th this year, and is available on Steam and itch.io platforms. In Unusual Findings, you follow the adventures of Vinny, Nick and Tony, three American boys in the mid-80s. Vinny and Nick go to Tony's house after receiving a cable decoder. While they are trying to tune into an adult TV channel, the experiment ends up picking up the signal from an alien spacecraft, which crashes into the forest near Tony's house. During the investigation, the trio discovers that this alien has not come in peace, while he is killing specific members of the community. It's up to the trio to find a way to defeat him before more people die.

Unusual Findings presents itself as a tribute and celebration to the American pop culture of the 80s, making references to classic films of the time, such as The Goonies, The Lost Boys, They Live, The Terminator, Alien, among others. In general terms, it's an old-fashioned adventure, with point-and-click elements, and a pixelated look, which was very typical of games of this style in the 90s. Also, there's a really cool factor that they put in here. , which is the system of choices and consequences: at certain times, you will face situations in which your decisions may reverberate in different answers, different puzzles and even in the relationships between the characters, which is something quite different here.

Another gameplay factor that can be seen here is in the moments when your character goes to arcades (or even you can try it at the beginning of the game): the point-and-click is now used as an arcade tool, where you plays several little games that pay homage to video game classics of the time. Another really cool thing here is the aspect of the soundtrack: anyone who watched Stranger Things and knows the soundtrack well will feel very at home playing Unusual Findings, as its soundtrack is entirely composed in Synthwave, featuring striking and sensational melodies. And, speaking of soundtrack, the folks at Epic Llama gave a treat to any streamer or content creator that comes to record a gameplay: the game features the option "Streamer Mode", where the soundtracks are apparently changed in order to avoid copyright issues. That's what it's like to think about content creators. The studio is to be congratulated here.

All that said, it's no wonder that Unusual Findings is purporting to be, in fact, a legitimate experience in terms of pop culture references. Charismatic characters, excellent soundtrack, nostalgic aesthetic, incredible gameplay. It is certainly a game that is very worth checking out, especially for those who were born or are a fan of the culture of that time.

Remember that the demo was present at this year's Steam Next Fest. You can download the demo from both the Steam and itch.io pages. Enjoy and check out the gameplay of Unusual Findings by clicking this link here. Also, it's worth checking out the game's Kickstarter page, and making a contribution to them if you're interested.