The history of musicians making games is a long and fascinating one that has taken many turns. While you might make obvious nods to the Rock Band titles and such, I prefer to look at the oddities like Revolution X, where Aerosmith thought they could crank out a decent shooting gallery game (spoiler: they did not). Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style married the best of both worlds, allowing the hip hop group to explore a bit more of their own interests in martial arts before moving on to simply starring and directing in several kick ass films. But it’s rare to have a game that shares the exact same name as the artist. Look Mum No Computer is a clear passion project by the musician of the same name, and players will either love or hate the game based entirely on their connection to the sound.

What about “cursed” makes you think we should have ANYTHING to do with it??

Our main character, Sam (which is the real name of Look Mum No Computer) is having a bit of a time. There’s something going wrong with electronics all over town, and, with the deduction of his trusty talking synthesizer, Kosmo, Sam understands that some kind of degradation is happening everywhere. From errant viruses to general malfunctions, battery acid to a different kind of infection, tech is having a tough time in the hamlet of Soldersworth. Thankfully, besides making tasty loops and some truly infectious beats, Kosmo also allows Sam to shrink down to a miniscule size and enter into each of the broken realms to see what’s up and find out the solution. The non-infected denizens are too happy to assist you, but will Sam’s journey of dank electronic noise be enough to save the bits and bauds, and possibly defeat the shadowy organization that moved in?

Look Mum No Computer is a twinstick shooter with some RPG elements and a lot of mayhem. Each realm, be it Sam’s own computer, the local vacuum repair shop or the register at the local store has its own unique layout and interface. Sam will zap in, talk with NPCs until he’s told the core issue, and then set out to gradually understand, locate and eliminate the issue. In the process, you’ll also find other NPCs who can give you additional side quests that will help you out in some way. The gist of it all boils down to getting in, blasting everything, and getting out with your brain intact. Failure will cause you to respawn at the entrance of the zone, a bit abashed but, otherwise, no worse for wear.

Alright, I feel like I parked right around here…

The first engagement with the game will feel a little tedious and almost boring. After a lot of text with some snappy banter between Sam, Kosmo and the neighboring scientist, you’ll get dropped into Sam’s own computer and have to start figuring things out. The first weapon you have is a basic pea shooter, and you won’t really feel any urgency with how the firing goes. Kosmo acts as a sort of independent drone with his own shots, which can quickly dispatch most enemies. It’s my belief that the developers purposely framed this under the expectation that fans of the music may flock to play the game without having any experience with twinstick shooters previously. I urge you to grin and bear it initially, because things immediately start getting more complex as you discover the existence of artifacts and blueprints.

Sam can and will end up with multiple blueprints for different additions to his tech storage, and each item he’ll discover has a twofold purpose. On one hand, it can be swapped into his arsenal as either a passive or active mod, giving him different weapons, shields and additional goodies. You can end up with a range of weapons that cover several different play styles. For example, one of the earlier guns you get shoots Furbies that will toddle up to enemies and explode. This level of bizarre approach helps to capture some of the game’s inner workings, and it only improves from there. All the weapons have individualized cooldown bars, so equipping multiple types of firepower and toggling between them quickly is key for strategy and maximum damage. Couple that with some decent passive upgrades that add shields or hasten cooldown periods, and you can really wreck house.

Please do not imitate these videos and assume you will build something functional.

The other hand is perhaps the true core of Look Mum No Computer,  but I’ll be the first to admit that’s speculative. Each device you end up crafting can be used in a controlled loop area to listen to and modify the tracks you discover along the way. Look Mum No Computer (the creator, not the game) clearly has a lot of love for the creation of things, and that shows up in some of the choices of the game. The aforementioned blueprints each have a unique video of live action footage of LMNC hastily assembling his “device,” which looks like absolute bafflegabs on purpose. These devices in game let you gradually exert more and more influence on the tracks which, as a result, will sound different when you go into the areas where the tracks play. It’s exceedingly fun and satisfying to experiment and find new sounds.

Having said that, I cannot overlook the fact that the twinstick shooting gets better and better the further you go along. Besides the absurdist dialogue that continually occurs between Kosmo, humanoid NPCs and all the sentient electronics you discover, you also find that the tone of things improves with more exploration. Each of the zones has a personality unto itself, with different traversals and more variation of the how and why to approach enemies. Some will simply shoot at you, some will use an invincible dash attack, and others still will be frantically everywhere at once, making it hard to lock in and get a kill. And you will want to shoot as many things as you can, as enemies drop randomized amounts of materials needed to work on those blueprints that are so very important.

Like, I know baddies are ugly, but woof.

The enemy spawns of Look Mum No Computer are a dual edged sword, however. The choice was made for enemies to immediately respawn when you leave a room, which allows for excellent farming of pickups as long as you’re near the central zone where you can easily teleport out. If, however, you’re rather far from home and just want to get back to the launch point after a grueling battle, you’re out of luck. You need to either be fully ready to fight everything twice, or you need to be fast and agile to dodge all the projectiles. Again, there’s no real penalty for dying and getting kicked back to the start, but it’s still a bit of a blow to the ego to rely on getting shot in the face as the way out.

But it’s got an incredibly well made feel to it, and that cannot be denied. The different zones all have plenty to explore and artefacts to find (allowing you to install and use more devices), and there are various sidequests peppered in to keep them from feeling too static. Yet they aren’t sprawling, overlong dungeons that I feel like we’re seeing more and more of in gaming. The lairs are tight and let you really enjoy the world of wherever you’re inhabiting, make some judgement calls, and then get the hell out. You can blast along with the soundtrack, figure out the main problem, solve it and then be on your way in well under an hour per area. Heck, if I didn’t spend so much time futzing with the controls, I could have been done with the first zone in twenty minutes.

Though navigating through the vaccuum cleaner world is, inarguably, a challenge.

That’s the core success of Look Mum No Computer. It’s got a story to tell through sound and concept, and it does it well and succinctly. I love twinsticks, and this one scratched an itch in due time without dragging it out. As someone who grew up messing around with FruityLoops, this kind of crunchy soundtrack that also has modular aspects was a treat, and discovering a musician, especially one so passionate about his craft, was a delight. It’s a proud indie title, and it deserves some attention for the effort put forward. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think it’s time to go screw around with some midis and recreate my junior high soundtrack.

Look Mum No Computer is available now on Steam, GOG, Epic Store, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series One X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Look Mum No Computer was provided by the publisher.