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I’m peeking through the hatch in the door trying to figure out if the alien in front of me is hiding an eye. Cyclops Anger Management is an exclusive support group that couldn’t possibly accept the multi-eye chancers that have been turning up this evening looking for a free bite to eat. But this cyclops is a truthful one, and a hidden eye isn’t the kind of subterfuge that you should expect in Mars After Midnight. This is a much goofy, more overtly lighthearted take on Papers, Please. The apprentice-level Return of the Obra Dinn. It's a Lucas Pope game that he made for his children, and they claim to "love it" – probably almost as much as I do.
This Playdate exclusive sees you play as an alien working on Mars running various community support groups that all happen, you guessed it, after midnight. Between the hours of 1am-5am you're going to be working with your little robot therapist pal to help the citizens of this Martian Colony sort out their various problems.
Fartin' in Martian
Sometimes it might not be entirely clear why such problems need a support group, but hey who am I to judge why people want to connect. From those gifted with ESP or startlingly loud flatulence, to shy smilers and math geniuses, there's a little group for all Martians eventually, you've just got to put the right flyers out.
Your job starts with picking which support group you'll run the next day, and then making sure the flyers you put out are going to the correct areas to appeal to all six Martians identified as beneficiaries - I told you these groups were exclusive. You then need to pick a refreshment that appeals to those people, whether they're into space-age donuts or something more disgusting-sounding like Dune Bug Pie. Then, you sleep in preparation to play doorman for the group.
This is where the Playdate exclusivity works wonderfully, as you open the hatch in the door using the crank, winding it one way to take a good look at the alien through the giant peephole and then the other to slam it closed on the chancers. Some entry requirements will be based on sight or sound alone, like listening for the audible trumpers or one-eyed wonders, while others will require accessories of sorts that bring even more hilarity to proceedings. One group based on finding likeminded flinchers meant blasting a small horn in their face, while another required using a calculator to conjure up potentially complex math equations that successful candidates will instantly know the answer to. (Me on the other hand, not so much.)
Crumbs!
The problem is your job doesn't stop when you let someone else through that door. Once inside they'll help themselves to the snack you've prepared for them and often maniacally just rearrange everything on the table, stacking plates on pies and serving spoons on tiny notice boards in wanton disarray. It's then on you to quickly put them back into presentable order while the next potential supporter bangs intensely on the door. It's not always that easy as you'll first have to stack everything with your gangly tentacles so that you can use the crank to send out a sweeper bot to do away with any crumbs, and then
The gameplay loops like this throughout, with support group themes becoming increasingly varied as you buy new support group cartridges and recipes from a travelling salesman who occasionally pops up on the other side of the hatch. You can really only do one group once, which keeps things feeling fresh throughout the surprisingly lengthy runtime for Mars After Midnight.
It's also a visual delight too, with creative alien designs and inventive silliness throughout, combined with a chip tune soundtrack that's going to earworm itself into your consciousness.
Mars After Midnight is out now exclusively on Playdate.
