Viscera

Cool October air filtered in through the open window. Your neighborhood, once full of life and activity, is now soundly asleep under a full moon. The trees swayed ominously in their grandiose size, old and gnarled with dead leaves hanging from their branches and falling to the ground below. The curtains on your windows softly fluttered in the breeze, carrying a smell of rain after a stormy day. Orange streetlights illuminated the living room you stood in, the couch behind you, in front of you the family television. Kneeling down, you looked at the box you had saved your money to buy, one that sent the schoolyard ablaze with rumors of the sheer brutality and shock it unleashed upon any who dare to play it

Carefully unboxing the cartridge, mindful not to damage the packaging, you slid the game out from its confines. The intimidating black cartridge sending a shiver down your spine when you read the title: Viscera. On the cover was a silhouette with a machete covered in blood. The manual was worse in its contents dark and full of art that was not only violent but oddly… Erotic. As if it were pushing every boundary imaginable in an effort to deliberately sicken the reader.

Suppressing a shiver, you turned on the TV with a sharp flick of a switch and a low staticky hum. The Atari stood there almost menacingly, waiting for the cartridge to be fed to it like a hungry beast. With a swell of anticipation more tense than you’ve ever felt, you slid the cartridge in with a sharp KR-CHUNK that made you flinch. Listening carefully for any stirring upstairs, you grabbed your controller, watching as the game started

After a flicker, a simple title screen appeared. Viscera, it read, with only a single button that said start and a pixel art illustration of a bloody knife on a tiled floor. With a rush of cold adrenaline, you pressed start, an eerie synth wave drone played softly, marking the beginning of the hunt…

[GAME START]