Pocket Elder God
What better way to introduce your little ones to the elder gods and the great messed up worlds of HP Lovecraft than with a virtual pet! Cthulhu Virtual Pet (2016), created by Neurocreativa, brings you back to the joyful days of having a pesky 16-bit attention whore dangling at your hip. Raise your elder god into the planet devouring terror that he is meant to be from the little squishy squid thing he starts as. A delightfully dark take on the whole digital pet genre; Cthulhu Virtual Pet is a must for anybody that is a fan of the eldritch horror genre.
Unlike other digital pets that give you the standard gamut of feed, clean, discipline and play with, Cthulhu Virtual Pet takes it a step further. They have interactive mini-games which give you money depending on your level of completion. This eldritch currency is what you use to buy your squishy a variety of food options ranging from fish and lizards to cultists and human sacrifices (which delightfully scream when they are being eaten). The currency can also be used to give your little homie medicine when he is ill (from you neglecting it or forgetting to feed it) or to help him grow by terrorizing the local populace with an array of abilities. You can help your little guy get stronger or lose weight by having him give artists nightmares, terrorize cities, or you can plump him up by having cultists pray to him or have him devour passing by ships.
The game has a total of 7 different minigames that all are Cthulhu themed. All of them are very simple and has are very easy to pick up. Though the games are simple it does not mean that they are easy. I found myself getting destroyed very early on in a couple of them and in the lock picking game I can barely get past level three! They are fun and give you the instant gratification that many mobile games are lacking.
Your squishy levels up and becomes the big nasty elder god we all know and love over time. You have ten cultists which worship your little guy in secret and through their prayers and sacrifices your homie grows. Now, several things can affect this… like you forgetting to feed your little Cthulhu making him eat one of those previously mentioned worshipers. As he eats worshipers the effectiveness of their prayers decreases and as the effectiveness of their prayers decrease the longer it takes your dude to level up. If you forget to clean him, feed him, or mop up his poo he will grow irritated and angry with you… once he reaches the point of no return (his happiness bar reaching zero) say sayonara to a worshiper.
For all the good the game has; it does have a couple major draw backs. Unlike other digital pets, it is not as interactive and your little squishy doesn’t need attention 24/7. In fact, much like H.P. Lovecraft’s story, Cthulhu (or whatever you name your tentacled bundle of joy) spends the majority of the time sleeping. I remember it taking all of five minutes to tucker the little guy out before putting him back to sleep. Also, the game has about a minute of play time before it forces you to watch an ad. This can be avoided by throwing your phone into aircraft mode, but it is still frustrating when you’re just hitting your groove and are forced to watch ads for other apps. All in all, I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment from this app and hope that you will too. I give this one a solid four thumbs up.
Images: Google Play and Neurocreativa
