I don’t watch things. Sorry, I don’t watch much in the way of TV or movies, though I do occasionally make the effort. I play video games. A lot. That’s more than enough to occupy my time.

Blippo+ is something you watch. There’s a hint of gameplay, but it’s mostly just to add a token interactive thing to touch. Unless you count flipping channels, which maybe qualifies as interaction. Nonetheless, something about it got my attention. Perhaps it was when I heard it described as similar to Hypnospace Outlaw, but whereas that game replicated the experience of navigating the early internet, Blippo+ is more like cable TV before streaming was widespread.

So, I already mentioned it, but I’m going to stress this further, and I’ll probably stress it again later on: you watch Blippo+. You don’t really play it. And yet somehow it still kind of feels like a video game.

TWO BUTTS

Jonathan “Updraft” Holmes suggested that I put Blippo+ on in the background while I do something else, which, okay, fine. I took the advice and nested Blippo+ on the right side of my screen and kept a word processor on the left. I don’t think this was absolutely necessary for me, but it did allow me to get some work done.

Blippo+ is framed as a transmission from another world. A mysterious wormhole that they call “The Bend” opens up, which allows us Earthlings to pick up their transmissions. They know nothing about us other than the fact that we exist and can see their broadcasts. Nonetheless, they are initially optimistic about its implications.

You go through ten weeks of programming. In the original PlayDate version, you actually had to wait a week real-time for the schedule to advance to the next set of programming. On PC, that’s not necessary. Instead, you just have to watch until the signal gets shaky, and it prompts you to “recalibrate.” At that point, you’ll receive an email offering you the next week’s “packette.”

The concept still stands, however. You’re watching a civilization go through ten weeks of television while they try to figure out what is up with The Bend.

HAVE THEY ALL GOT THE BENDS?

Really, you’re just watching a handful of stations with interchangeable, weird programming. There’s a tonne of different genres on display, but they’re so similar in their weirdness that you could essentially just be watching a variety show. It’s sort of like a far less edgy Liquid Television.

With that said (and this is also true of Liquid Television), you’ll probably have your favourites. I always looked forward to new episodes of Quizzards – a mix of Dungeons & Dragons and a trivia game show – and The Realms Beyond – which is sort of like a storytime version of The Twilight Zone. There weren’t any that I really hated, but I felt there were a few too many talk shows. I understand that they’re necessary to move the plot along, but a couple less probably wouldn’t have affected anything. Or, alternatively, a few more non-talk shows to balance the load.

Anyway, that’s the entire game. You watch the week’s programming until your picture goes screwy, re-calibrate, download the new packette, watch the next week. Repeat until complete.

QUIZZARDS AND QUARRIORS

So, you might wonder why Blippo+ isn’t just a TV series. And the answer might come down to its video game approach to storytelling. I don’t think that a TV series would really attempt what Blippo+ does by seamlessly integrating an overarching plot into a variety show from another world. I mean, sure, there are serialized shows that tell a story over the course of a season, but I’m not doubt I could name one that does so in a way that doesn’t put focus on the narrative itself, and instead tells it through a progression of unreliable narrators in various unrelated segments.

A lot of the shows in Blippo+ don’t address the mystery of the bend because that’s just not what they’re about. They make reference to places on the fictional planet, and one of the talk shows might mention something happening behind the scenes of one of the other shows, but the central story is just woven in between them. It’s fascinating stuff.

It lends to this feeling I used to get in my youth when my parents would be out for the evening, and I’d be left watching late-night TV. All these really weird cartoons would come on, and because I was watching Canadian broadcasting, they’d often be divided by these artistic shorts from the Film Board of Canada. Often bizarre, sometimes funny, occasionally poignant, but all lending to the illusion of viewing someone else’s fever dream.

Vidiot

On the other hand, I’ve spent years analyzing video games. Oh, sure, I’m also a writer and can critique narratives in general. I know how to assess characters, pacing, tension, and so on, but I mostly write about the interplay between gameplay and storytelling. Blippo+ doesn’t really have any interplay. The interactive part of it barely qualifies as gameplay. I’m out of my element here.

But, I’ll tell you this: the whole time that I was “playing” Blippo+, not once did I ask, “why am I watching this?” When I finished, I asked, “Why did I watch that,” but that was because I wanted to analyze what made it so effective, not because I thought I had just wasted my time. And that’s something I’m going to need to chew on for a while. I don’t have a totally solid answer, I just found it rather engrossing. It was exactly like watching something alien, even when it was just a bunch of weird, budget-conscious sketches.

Which means you should probably check it out. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and there’s a substantial chance we’ll never see anything like it again.

7/10

This review was conducted using a digital Steam version of the game. It was paid for by the author.