Pony Island is not about ponies. It’s about escaping a demonic arcade game developed by the devil to capture the souls of the living. It just features strong pony themes.
I downloaded Daniel Mullins’ bizarre adventure on Steam last night at around 2 AM, intending to spend a couple of minutes getting a feel for it before turning in for the night. I finished the game at 5 AM, and wound up sleeping for three hours in my office chair, which seems like the sort of thing the devil would approve of.
I figured the game would be easy to pick up and put down, but I was only half right. Check out what happens when the game begins.
I certainly couldn’t stop there, so I checked out the options menu.
Do not worry, there are no in-app purchases. There is, however, a “Fix Start Menu” option, which worked like a charm. Soon I was jumping over gates like a pro pony, until I broke out of them game onto a desktop, and a mysterious entity started up a conversation.
It was a soul trapped in the game, just like I was virtually and in reality as well. Tasked with finding and deleting a trio of system files to free the souls trapped in Pony Island, I began a grand adventure of alternating logic puzzles and simplistic arcade action, sprinkled with assorted mind-fuckery.
At one point I was tricked into thinking I had accidentally sent a horrible message to someone outside the game. The tricks Pony Island played on me were so clever and effective that when I finally finished playing and closed the application, I wasn’t sure if I actually closed it. I’m still not 100 percent certain.
I went back in this morning and recorded the first fifteen minutes or so for your viewing pleasure.
Pony Island is now available on Steam for $4.99, which seems like a small price to pay for your eternal soul.
Contact the author at fahey@kotaku.com or follow him on Twitter at @bunnyspatial