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Let’s Mix Cultists and Toilet Humor, and See What We Get - Dentures and Demons Review

5K View2022-10-06

It’s my favorite time of year. Fall is officially upon us, which means a nice change in weather, a colorful array of leaves falling on the ground, my birthday, and of course, Halloween season, baby! Horror movies, hay rides, costume parties, and the occasional ghost story—all of these things make October awesome.

To kick off a month filled with frights and terror, I thought I’d play a little game called Dentures and Demons. This pixelated adventure game spices up its horror storyline with puzzles and moments of arcade gameplay. Potential players are warned about foul language and how easily offended parties should steer clear, but honestly, those cautions only made me want to play the game more. Within just a few moments of starting the game, I saw exactly what they meant.

Developed and published by Sui Arts, Dentures and Demons is a satirical action adventure with middle school humor. And when I say middle school humor, I’m not kidding... This game drops so many four-letter words and fart jokes within the first ten minutes of gameplay that I almost thought I was watching an episode of South Park. ( Okay, maybe not quite that bad.)

It’s hard to pin down the exact genre for Dentures and Demons. Movement is accomplished via 2D side-scrolling, and the game provides puzzles to solve. But some segments are more action-packed and arcade-like, and it also rolls in elements of interactive storytelling. Whatever genre box it’s trying to fit into at any given time, though, the game manages to stay consistently entertaining throughout.

In Dentures and Demons, players take on the role of Junior Peexelated, a detective who is investigating the case of a dangerous sect. You’ll step into the shoes of other characters at a few points as well, but it’s all in service of an exciting mix of mystery and action, such as one hair-raising chase scene where I avoided a knife-wielding cultist.

Dentures and Demons’s narrative is told in six chapters, beginning with “The Haunted Mansion.” This opening involves rescuing your buddies, who have been captured by a murderous, Satan-worshipping geriatric wielding a butcher knife. Thus the aforementioned chase scene and the game’s title!

It’s easy to tell that Dentures and Demons doesn’t take itself too seriously. I mean, I literally had to rescue one of those friends, Tony, by making him angry enough to break free from confinement. How did I do that you ask? Well, I had two options, which you can see for yourself in the screenshot below:

Yeah... This kind of humor draws a clear line between those who will love Dentures and Demons and those who will hate it. The game at least takes aim at quite the wide range of targets; they even managed to throw in a joke about Game of Thrones Season 8. Sui Arts are based out of Italy, and it sometimes shows in the English translation. A few of the jokes struck me as more weird than shocking, but I can only imagine they make more sense in the native Italian.

For my part, the edgy sense of humor in Dentures and Demons elicited a small chuckle here and there, but it felt like it was mostly just pushing boundaries for the sake of pushing rather than being actually funny. Wherever you land on the game’s attempts at comedy, though, the puzzles provide enough of a challenge that you can’t brush through the game without giving your next move some thought. And the absurd story motivated me to keep playing just to see where it would lead.

Dentures and Demons is pretty generous in its monetization, as well. You can either play the game by watching ads or purchase the full version for $2 to unlock all additional content. The full version includes a director’s cut, a few mini-games, and of course, the ability to play the game without ads. A pretty good deal if you ask me.

With its decent pixel-art graphics, goofy jokes and fourth-wall-breaking asides, and absolute love for being silly, Dentures and Demons proves to be a fun and unique experience. If you can get past being offended—and clearly plenty of people did, since it was popular enough to warrant the release of Dentures and Demons 2 earlier this year—it’s definitely one to put on your list of games to play during spooky season. I mean, it’s got evil old people and demons! It doesn’t get much scarier than that.

SCORE: 4 STARS OUT OF 5

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

• Black humor. This game is loaded with dark jokes of all kinds. If you’re not easily offended and enjoy jokes that push the envelope, you may want to try Dentures and Demons.

• Puzzle games. Dentures and Demons is a puzzler that offers a decent challenge while keeping true to its casual nature. You won’t scratch your head too hard, but you’ll definitely take a moment to think. If you’re into this style of puzzler, check it out.

• The Visit. Some of Dentures and Demons reminded me of this found footage hoorror-comedy. Certainly, the old serial killer, and absurd humor, to name a few. If you’re familiar with this film and liked it. You might consider downloading Dentures and Demons.

💬 Were you offended by Dentures and Demons? And what are some games we need to play for the Halloween season? Let me know in the comments?

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