Brain Freeze heads onto Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Retro-styled "puzzle noir" adventure starring pieces of chalk and cheese available now for Windows, Mac and Linux

Adventure game detectives come in all shapes, sizes and species, but chances are you've never encountered the likes of the two lead investigators in ggidk's newly released pixel art mystery, Brain Freeze.

It's 1946 San Francisco, where a murder occurs one "chilly, rainy, dead October night." The best man for the job isn't a man at all, but a hunk of cheese. Chief Cheese, to be precise, a "World War II veteran, a prophetic crime solver, and a hopelessly romantic dairy product." The chain-smoking chief isn't above breaking some rules to get the job done, but that's not going to fly with his straight-laced partner, a "by-the-book stick of chalk." Together these two unlikely protagonists must join forces for a "psychoanalytical cat-and-mouse, mouse-and-cheese mind game like no other." Yes, you'll collect clues and search for evidence like any good detective duo, but you'll also "break into a house, fall in love with a suspect, hit the sauce, and fire a nuclear bullet at a family pet." It may sound crazy, but "sometimes you crack the case, [and] sometimes the case cracks you."

If that sounds completely bonkers, then there's truth in advertising for what promises to be "the cheesiest game of 2024." (Consider yourself warned.) Brain Freeze's "thrillingly overwritten detective story ... pours out hot and heavy as fondue" as its plot "thickens and twists more sickeningly than gas-station nacho cheese." The retro-styled presentation features "pixel art sharper than aged cheddar" that is accompanied by "music funkier than blue cheese." The "puzzle noir" gameplay depends on which of the two protagonists you currently control. The team's rookie, Chalk, "squares off against puzzles based on classics like lock picking, Masyu, Sokoban, and those Zelda sliding-block puzzle-things," while the more experienced Cheese "has to experiment with his own counterintuitive mechanics to shoot, drink, and shoot his way to the truth." After all, it's not easy firing a gun when you're just "a wedge of cheddar." 

Originally conceived as part of the 2023 Thinky Puzzle Game Jam, Brain Freeze has since been expanded into a full commercial offering, and is available now on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux. 

• Advertisement
• Help support AGH by advertising with us