DIESEL RAVE 4EVER - the itch.io page
A Mall Near You is an indie Adventure Game with shades of Horror Comedy. It was released in late November of 2022 by Diesel Rave Studios as Day 22 for MADVENT 3: NECROSIS (2022)
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You play as a child set loose into a mostly-abandoned mall by their mother to get presents for their family for Christmas. Throughout the game, you run into many wacky characters, solve puzzles, and collect up to 10 gifts.
You can play it here.
Due to the nature of this game, there are unmarked spoilers ahead. You Have Been Warned.
A Mall Near You contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Downplayed, but your mom does send you into a mall by yourself late at night because she forgot to buy presents for the family. The mall employees lampshade this.
- Adorably Precocious Child: The protagonist is relatively smart and mature (and knows quite a bit about Brendan Fraser), but they have the naivety and innocence of a child.
- Alliterative Name: All of the employees have names that start with the same letters, like chill clerk and pretzel peddler.
- Always Check Behind the Chair: You find one of the ten gifts in a trash can.
- Apathetic Clerk: The cool clerk has shades of this, being reluctant to do her job and disgruntled at the protagonist coming in right before closing.
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: The rich geezer gives you a blank check as a reward and says that "no amount of money you could withdraw would hurt him".
- Bathos: The game has a mostly light tone, but a healthy amount of
Nightmare Fuel moments are mixed in. - Caps Lock: Whenever anyone says "BIG COIN", it's in all caps.
- Captain Obvious:
- The protagonist notes the vending machine isn't working, then says "Might be because it's not plugged into the wall".
- The protagonist notes that they can't grab the BIG COIN from the well because "the water's too wet".
- Comical Overreaction: The chatty clerk is very impressed by your trick, so much so that he sells the huge display dinosaur to you for you to teach him. But when he demonstrates it, the trick is literally just a small jump in the air.
- Exact Words:
- The Saul's employee says that to buy the Brendan Frazer figure, you'd have to have "a reeeeally goofy amount of money, thoooough..." If you have the blank check, you can give it to her, the game noting that the balance on the check is $GOOFY.00.
- Played for Horror. The Saul's employee says that the mall will close when you're done shopping. After confirming twice that you're done, then it Jump Cuts to the mall being shut down... with you still inside it.
- Fade to White: After you exit the mall, the screen fades to white as the game ends.
- Featureless Protagonist: Nothing is revealed about the protagonist, only that they're a child.
- Friendly Shopkeeper: The chipper clerk is very accommodating.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The objective is to get gifts for your family. You can get up to 10 for the Golden Ending.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: The Saul's employee says that she won't sell it to you if you don't have the money, even if you asked twice. If you ask again, she'll immediately cave in.
- Kids Love Dinosaurs: The protagonist does everything they can to get a dinosaur, even though they don't know whether it's a T-Rex or a Triceratops.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: There are some very convenient chalk drawings that lay out the game controls in front of the mall.
- Medium Blending: The mall is rendered in PS2-style 3D, but the characters are 2D drawings.
- Mood Whiplash: After deciding you're done shopping, the funny interaction with the Saul's employee smashes into the dark, eerie mall after it's been closed down.
- Murderous Mannequin: The various interactions with mannequins throughout the mall are generally Played for Horror. To compound this, when you're not looking, some mannequins turn to face you.
- Non Sequitur: The pretzel peddler mostly speaks in grunts, but if you ask them how they are, they'll suddenly speak perfect English. After, they'll go straight back to grunts.
- Notice This: All of the potential gifts have a big sparkle on them to draw attention.
- Parody: Many of the shops are plays on existing stores, like Warm Subject standing in for Hot Topic, or Tropical Diner instead of Rainforest Cafe.
- Running Gag: Throughout the game, people compare sick in the "cool" way and sick in the "sick" way.
- Retraux: The game has PS2-era graphics for the lo-fi style. It also makes the mall seem more liminal.
- Sleepyhead: The Saul's employee is constantly falling asleep, even when standing up in the middle of a hallway.
- Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Near the middle, but more on the comedy side. The game is filled with gags and generally has a light-hearted tone, but certain moments stand out as pretty scary.
- Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness: Fairly high on the open scale. You're relegated to the mall. However, even though all the characters note that it's late, you have infinite time in the mall, and you can collect the gifts at any pace and order.
- So Proud of You: The fenkem freak's reaction to seeing you've collected all or most of the gifts. Couples with a bit of a Jacob Marley Warning.
- Strange Secret Entrance: In the Warm Subject store, there's a wall of just Funko Pops. You can knock them over to reveal the fenkem freak's Secret Room.
- Take That!: The protagonist notes that the food from "Tropical Diner" will make you sick.
- Take Your Time: Despite the employee's warnings that it's getting late, you have infinite time to explore and find gifts in the mall.
- Talk to Everyone: Not just possible, encouraged to find all ten of the gifts. Most can only be obtained by talking to people.
- Tasty Gold: The rich geezer bites the BIG COIN to make sure it's really gold.
- The Unintelligible: The pretzel peddler appears to be this... until you ask them about their day.
- You Didn't See That: The chill clerk when you mention the Strange Secret Entrance. She encourages you to "not be a snitch".
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ITS SOAP!!!!!
wow... soap
