“Crap! I’m Broke: Out of Pocket” is a mini game app that pits you against eviction and death from starvation, and has one of the best game titles seen. You just moved into your new apartment, but you find yourself with no money in your bank account. Mom had paid for the first three months. Nevertheless, you still need to start finding jobs soon enough to pay the rent, and God knows what.
At the start of the month, you may get emails, with “Crap!” as their appropriate subject title, to add costs onto your rent. Emails that give you money do happen, but it rarely does. You could also browse through the Webshop to buy tokens (one per month) to boost your paycheck from a particular job and items that’ll unlock more occupations as well as give you perks. These will help you in the long run but to balance the game some items require multiple payments, which can be canceled and repossessed if you can’t afford it.
After taking care of business in your apartment it’s time to go job hunting, going left and right to play one mini game after the other. The jobs (mini games) will pay you based on performance, with some bonuses for your best. Screw up and the bosses will deck your time limit per mistake. If all else fails you could go to the mart and keep buying lottery tickets.
You continue to work to live another month, but the money is also for a trip you plan from your New Year’s Resolution, including a family visit, going to a game convention, and a shuttle ride in space (no option to bet all on Feather Adonis, mind you).
As you try to put cash in the bank, you need to keep track of your Hunger and Time Meters. As the names suggest Hunger is long you can last till you starve to death, and Time is the enemy that evicts you if you run out of it. The Hunger Meter can be replenished with food to keep Li’l Reaper away. Even so, as such with life, the Time Meter can’t be refilled or slowed down.
However, spare time can be used to unlock micro games (one at a time). The micro games are a nice distraction but unlocking one could take a long time for busybodies. If you starve or run out of time (no grace period) it is game over, though you get to start from the start of the year.
The presentation uses the cubist art style blended with jazz music to create the allusion of adulthood, and strangely it works with game’s scenario. The clean cubic design to your character and the rest of world and the subtle jazz soundtrack makes it feel pleasant and fun in what would be the melancholy of a working adult. As for the micro games, they take inspiration from the old Atari games: they are retro in design and gameplay, adding an old-school charm among modern attractions.
“Crap! I’m Broke” is a great little game, and strangely this hits close to home for many of us. Even though it’s fun to play the mini games while dealing with some challenges with expenses it feels like an accurate metaphor on life for people working from odd jobs to make a living, in hopes of accomplishing their dreams while fending off bills and death. Sure, it could just be me looking too much into this specific aspect of the game, but the theme feels too relatable to ignore.
Furthermore, the only serious problem lies with the controls, for it is possible to hit the home button by accident while swiping across the screen. It can get annoying, but the developer figured real life will eventually call so the game pauses whenever it is minimized. Nevertheless, in overall, the game is fun, even if it reminds you of your life.
Pros:
+ Turns the life of a working adult with financial issues into a humorous and fun game
+ The cubist art style and jazz music strangely fleshes out the adult misadventure
+ Best title I’ve seen for a game
Cons:
– Unlocking micro games can take a long time, maybe even years (in-game)
– Could accidentally hit the home button from time to time
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Graphics: 5/5
Sound/Music: 5/5
Controls: 4/5
Replay value: 4/5
Verdict: 4.5/5
”Crap! I’m Broke: Out of Pocket” is an entertaining app that takes the mundane employment fields with the problems of adult finances and turns it into fun mini games with an overall goal of not going bankrupt let alone dead. Even if this game somehow parallels with your life you can at least be a responsible adult or go for broke safely in this game, but please be a good adult in real life.
Title: Crap! I’m Broke: Out of Pocket
Developer: Arcane Circus
Format: Android
Genre: Simulation
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Release date: 2016-10-11
Difficulty: Normal
Spent time: +2 hours
Average grade internationally: 65.00% Gamerankings.com
PEGI/ESRB age rating: PEGI 12+/Teen
Price: $1.99
Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor
David Lucas
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @GamerFoxem
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Tags: Android, Android review, Arcane Circus, Crap! I’m Broke, Indie games, Mobile games, Out of Pocket