Wide Ocean Big Jacket
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC and iOS
Genres: Narrative and Open World
Released: February 2020. Added to this library 12 weeks ago, last updated 7 weeks ago.
Overview
This is a game about camping. Or rather, it's a game about the conversations you have while you are camping. You follow 13-year-old teenage friends Mord and Ben who recently started dating. The camping trip is with Mord’s Uncle Brad and Aunt Cloanne.
As you roast hot dogs on the fire, go birdwatching, tell ghost stories, grab a beverage from the cooler and do cartwheels on the beach, the conversation turns to what's on the group's mind. There are awkward moments talking about sex, chats about nature or the most important ingredients in a hot dog.
It's a short game, but one that feels like living in a well observed novel. It captures the expanding of horizons, and perplexity of moving from childhood to adulthood.
This game is good if you want to play aging characters, escape life's storms for a while, reconsider your body, walk in someone else's shoes or play your first video game.
Commitment
Costs
Ratings
Accessibility
System settings: Nintendo Switch has some built-in features, including a lockable zoom, that can be used on all games. Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators. iOS has a very extensive suite of accessibility settings including ways to navigate with voice and comprehensive screen reading, though most of the features don't work with games... read more.
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Wide Ocean Big Jacket is in These Lists
In addition to the similar games listed above, which have been linked to this game specifically in the database, you may find games with a similar theme to Wide Ocean Big Jacket in the following lists:
Walk in Someone Else's Shoes
In contrast to films or books, characters and relationships in video games need to be discovered by the player. Some of my favourite relational moments in games happen amidst other action. Often these other actions – whether shooting, puzzle-solving, or fetching and carrying – serve to underline the difficult, awkward and snatched nature of interpersonal interactions.
Find Calm From The Storm
Your First Video Game
We've found that it's not just parents who have enjoyed the way these games let them in on the world of gaming, but grandparents, uncles and aunts. In fact it's a great list for anyone who's never played a game and wants to know what all the fuss is about.
Come To Terms With Ageing
Know Your Body
This is not only an enjoyable way to escape the reality of daily life but a chance to reflect on and understand ourselves, and our bodies, better. Stepping into the shoes of a vulnerable, small or endangered character can help us understand for a short while some of what it is like to be someone else.
Whether this is into the awkward teenage years of Mord and Ben in Wide Ocean Big Jacket, the grandparent-escaping Tiger and Bee in Kissy Kissy, the fractured heartbroken body in Gris or the haphazard movement of Octodad we have a chance to reassess our own physicality and how we respond to and treat other people's physicality.
More specifically, to use body therapy language, games offer us a chance to discover the inviolability of our bodies, personal autonomy, self-ownership, and self-determination. In travel, as Andrew Soloman says, we go somewhere else to see properly the place where we have come from. In video games, we step into other bodies so we can better understand our own and those of the people around us.
Thanks for using our resource. We are editorially independant, written by parents for parents, but welcome sponsorship, partnership and suggestions. It is supported by the Get Smart About PLAY campaign from AskAboutGames.com. For more advice and guidance on video games, also check out my Taming Gaming book.Tweet
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