Some people bang their heads into tough games for the glory or loot, but I’m just trying to survive Malfunction so I can kiss another ghost. Łukasz “Vanripper” Piskorz, creator of the cult hit Helltakeris back with more cute girls put in front of you in a game designed to make you work for it.
Malfunction is free Couple AND Itch.iobut getting a kiss from one of the ghost girls certainly isn’t it. Like Helltaker, Malfunction looks deceptively plain: you’re a brisk little mechanic stuck in 2D rooms with machines that need repairing. WASD control allows you to move the right parts to the right machines. And then ghosts appear and want to kill you, and suddenly you’re dodging attacks like in a shooting game from hell.
Your job would be pretty basic if it weren’t for the ghostly ladies trying to fry you. Malfunction reminds me of a game Overcooked. Machines are hungry customers, asking for the right item that will satisfy them, and you have to feed them. But you’re just a fragile little girl who falls to your knees when one of these bad girls touches you, so the machines have to wait while you lure the ghost girls and avoid their attacks. Anyone who was forged in fire Undertale Boss fights will evolve here. I wasn’t, and I probably would have given up if every level didn’t end with you declaring yourself “READY TO KISS.”
These victory scenes show what happens to each ghost girl and how they react to quick kisses on the cheek. The bane you encounter in the first level is completely unhinged. “Next time the shields go down, you’ll pay for it,” he threatens as the tsundere alarms go off. Cutwire leans in and promises he’ll be back to “stab you in the back.” And Nikita towers over you and calls you petite. Malfunction has something for everyone.
Eventually the girls decide that tormenting you is actually fun and team up to make you squirm. I wasn’t prepared to handle two at once and gave up after completing a few levels. You can lower the difficulty to basic and take a few more hits, or boost it above normal and see how long you can last with a tighter time limit and machines that constantly break down.
Helltaker gave you a secret ending of finding hidden keys in his levels and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more of that Malfunction than it seems. There were no dialogue options or branching paths in my game, but the achievement list suggests that the most agile players can be rewarded for their efforts. I’m tempted to see what it is, if only because the game is so brisk. Restarting the level is immediate and a pulsating soundtrack plays Gloves pulls you back in every time.
Every ghost girl is meant to be someone’s favorite, even if their character designs aren’t as personal to me as the demon girls in Helltaker. Maybe I just didn’t find it Awaria’s equivalent Guardian yet, and I apologize to all my friends on Discord who expect me to talk about anything else if that happens. I guess I’ll have to go back to letting these women boss me around a little longer to find out.
