Can Anger Be a Gift? Maybe Not in This Case - Angry Dad: Arcade Simulator Review

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Did you ever have one of those days when all you wanted to do was just relax, maybe watch some sports on the ol’ boob tube and have a couple beers, but when you got home there was just too much stuff to do or too much stuff going on for you to properly relax? Well, does Double Tap Games have the game for you! It’s called, appropriately enough, Angry Dad: Arcade Simulator. I’m pretty sure the “Arcade Simulator” part of the title is supposed to be ironic, because this ain’t no arcade game, but your guess is as good as mine.

In Angry Dad, the player takes on the role of Dad. It seems Dad is a big fan of football/soccer matches, and after many losing seasons, his favorite team has finally made it to the finals. He wants to watch the finals match, obviously, but he also wants to be a good Dad. So he has to do a lot of housework while the match is going on. Getting pulled away from the match doesn’t put Dad in the best of moods, unfortunately, but does his best to control his anger because he still wants to be the best Dad he can be.

After a quick tutorial, the game shows us Dad sitting in his favorite chair watching the football match in front of the TV, and then he gets some chores (washing dishes, answering the door, fixing pipes, etc.). The tasks are displayed by flashing icons on the screen; tap the icon and dad pulls himself out of the chair, then goes off to do that chore.

As he gets more work to do, his anger increases. This is depicted by a “Rage Meter” in the top left hand corner of the screen. If the Rage Meter fills up completely, Dad loses control and the game is over, so it’s advisable to do your best to keep his anger in check. To keep his anger manageable, there are two things he needs: He has to see his team score some goals, and he has to drink a couple beers—but not too many, lest he become intoxicated. Those are the only two things that truly reduce ol’ Dad’s stress.

Therefore, it is necessary for him to get back to watching the match in-between the constant (and do I mean constant) chores... Otherwise it’s game over. The chores (i.e., minigames) include: unclogging the toilet (tap the plunger icon as quickly as possible until the toilet becomes unclogged); answering the phone (no game here really, you just have to pick up the phone so it will stop ringing); dealing with a salesman at the door (quickly select the letters of rude phrases, like the always charming PISS OFF); cleaning the dirty dishes (wiping the screen in a circular motion); opening a pickle jar for your wife (rapidly tapping the screen again); and mending leaking pipes (quickly tapping the broken/leaking areas). The most interesting of these minigames is one that doesn’t occur often enough: helping your son with his homework. This genuinely surprised me, as I was suddenly tasked with answering a few simple math problems—not something you see in a video game every day. The last game I recall that did something like this is Rockstar’s Bully.

So that’s the core gameplay loop found in Angry Dad. It’s basically a time management/risk vs. reward simulator. Does Dad have enough time to fix the sink on his way back from answering the door so he can make it back to his seat to see his team’s first goal? Those are the questions you’ll be asking yourself as you play Angry Dad, and most times, realistically, the answer is no. And that’s where frustration comes into play with this experience, as there is no real way to quantify how quickly Dad’s rage escalates. Yeah, you can see the Rage Meter, but it’s constantly on the rise, regardless of what Dad is doing. The goal scoring and beer drinking only seem to help in minimal amounts and, again, are almost wholly unquantifiable. Playing Angry Dad with any degree of success really just comes down to luck. And that’s not much fun.

To break up this vexation, the game offers an ungodly amount of ads (only half joking, but this game does have more ads in it than I recall seeing in any other game), a bonus level where Dad gets to vent some anger by smashing up the house with a baseball bat, and timed “survival” levels that task Dad with completing as many chores as possible in a two minute window. These are pretty standard, but I do take a bit of umbrage with the smashing bonus level. While it is amusing and cathartic at first, an odd thought struck me as I was nearing the end of the level, essentially destroying “my” own house in a fit of rage. The thought was: Would this level be triggering for anyone who has PTSD, or who suffered at the hands of an abusive male/father figure? My guess is that it would be, and while I’m sure the developers at Double Tap would say it’s “all in good fun,” I’d bet my bottom dollar there are those who definitely wouldn’t see it that way, unfortunately.

The interface offered in Angry Dad is quite simple, and its controls are also rather straightforward, as you are just merely tapping icons as they pop on the screen; Dad marches off to complete the chosen task all on his own. There are several upgrades (movement, Rage Meter length, etc.) you can buy through the course of a game, but none of them really felt like they made any real difference. Both the graphics and music are serviceable at best and nothing to write home about.

Angry Dad is an interesting, Sims-type game, but one that could definitely be much better with some more polish and planning. The game would benefit from more complex tasks and a wider variety of household chores. I mean one can only unclog the same digital toilet so many times before you have to wonder why not just buy a whole new toilet? But the game’s biggest polish issue is how the difficulty level is out of whack mostly due to the feeling of the risk vs. reward elements that rule how the game is played. Dad is continually angry, so it becomes quite difficult to keep him under wraps...much like The Incredible Hulk.

Nobody liked Bruce Banner when he was angry...and nobody likes Dad—at least the continually raging Dad presented here—either.

SCORE: 2 STARS OUT OF 5

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

• The Sims series. Test out Angry Dad: Arcade Simulator if EA/Maxis’s long running life simulator series is your bag.

• The Animal Crossing series. Angry Dad: Arcade Simulator may not be as cutesy and adorable as Nintendo’s slice-of-life experience, but it shares a few similar elements here and there.

Have you played Angry Dad: Arcade Simulator? Let us know what you think of it in the comments! Even if you haven't played it, leave a comment sharing your favorite life simulator games!

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