What it does best
A gloriously deranged premise that commits to the bit
A strange, funny nightmare that gradually turns genuinely unsettling
A final reveal that rewards enduring the bizarre ritual
Low-poly hunting-game ugliness with an unmistakable identity
What might put you off
The hunting loop can feel repetitive and overextended
Very short for its standalone price
The setup
What you are walking into
Originally created as part of The Dread X Collection II, Squirrel Stapler is a horror hunting simulator that satirizes low budget edutainment games with pitch black humor and panic-inducing absurdist horror. A lonely man living in a remote cabin wakes up one day and realizes his beloved--a dismembered corpse nailed to the cabin wall--has been made ugly and rotten by the flies that swarm her. He wishes she were beautiful, like the squirrels of the wood. And so he sets out to hunt the squirrels of the wood, so that he might staple them to her and make her beautiful again. But that is easier said than done. A sinister presence lurks in the deep forest, and it has only one rule: "Thou shalt not staple squirrels!"
Where it lives
Genre
Vibe
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