This though, maybe because of recent thoughts of mortality due to rapidly ageing and distant parents and a wife who is ill seemed to kick me in the balls (eloquent no?). First time through I didn't get the girl and wandered and went, "nice idea" but no more than that. I had another go, found the girl, wandered, got the whole limited options but higher 'score' thing with a wry grin and then the sudden gravestone for the 'wife' just about undid me.

Remarkable.

I don't think this game is going to offer anything at ALL to anyone who has not yet been touched by death or mortality in any real way. But for those that have, I think there is a tiny chance it might.

Strangely, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

I played through it twice. First time just bumbling around, and picking up the girl (that I didn't even realize was one before she started following – or leading, as it were), and walking around blocks. Second time I just stuck to the "top" stretch that has no blocks whatsoever, swerving only to avoid the girl. First time the little number up there said 507 when I died. Second time, 418. Mmmk.

I don't think I want to start on the art vs. not art debate, because it's been going on since the beginning of time and I'm not likely to bring anything significant to it (plus, I've been to the MOMA and evidently I disagree with a lot of people on the definition of art). I didn't get it, but I'm not going to rant and rave against the game, the developer, the 99 cents (seriously, you own an iPhone/iPod Touch and 99c is a big deal?) or the website. I've played a lot of games I didn't like, and I survived. Most of them cost me much more than 99c and 5 minutes during a train ride. I'm glad TA brought this to my attention. I'm glad it works for some people. It doesn't do it for me, and I'll just quietly go back to other stuff that does.

See? Not so easy is it?

Anyway:

"For myself, some of my earliest memories are playing ‘Astroblast’ and ‘Tron Deadly Disks’ on the Intellevision"

Wasn't it "Astrosmash" on the Intellivision, and us 2600/VCS owners got the downgraded version known as "Astroblast"? Either way, I loved that game. Hell, I still play it to this day.

In scale it's equivalent to a short story; it's not supposed to be terribly complex or epic in scope; rather something that evokes a certain feeling, gives pause, perhaps a moment of interesting perspective.

It seems to provoke a strong negative reaction in some people; some 'don't get it' at all (complaining about primitive graphics is a dead giveaway of this), while some 'get it' intellectually but don't connect with it experientially and therefore find it trivial.

For myself, some of my earliest memories are playing 'Astroblast' and 'Tron Deadly Disks' on the Intellevision; so the level of graphics in Passage are especially easy for me to connect to emotionally. I wonder if this type of generational effect is a key cause of the mixed responses?

Just about nobody had heard about the game, there was no media reaction quotes, and the article simply described the game as "one of those loose, free, and arty little diversions."

There was nothing in the Kotaku article about "making you think about life" or "a thought provoking game".

I liked the little retro-graphics from the screenshots, so I downloaded and played the game, and didn't know what to expect, I didn't even read the comments on the article. Indeed, it was a revelation to me, a very emotional "passage" when I began to understand what it was about… I really loved this "game".

That being said… Since then, the game has been hyped to no end. While I think it might be deserved in a way, the hype damages the element of surprise and self-discovery people might have had when "playing" Passage.

I'm sure many can enjoy Passage as much as I did despite the hype, but it does create a big counter-reaction from people who don't like to be told what should be "thought provoking" and "life-changing" to them, and their reaction could've been different if they found the game by themselves with little information about it. Many people will play the game with biased expectations, with an attitude of "What the heck is so great about this "game" that I couldn't thought about myself?".

I think that the problem here lies with the fact that this version is not free…

If it was free, the article should've been as a very short blurb about Passage being a "fun artsy time waster that you might like", giving away as little as possible.

But since it's not free, the reviewer has to "justify" the buy, with quotes from the media and a long article explaining that the game is "thought provoking". The reviewer ends up between a rock and a hard place… If he explains the game too much he'll ruin the element of surprise and heighten the expectations too much, and if he doesn't explain it enough, some people will feel ripped-off if they buy the game and are not satisfied.