New Soulslike Game on Steam is a Funny Hodgepodge of Dark Souls, Skyrim, and South Park: The Stick of Truth

Comedy is a tricky thing to get right, regardless of artistic medium, and video games are no exception. Some games, like Thank Goodness You’re Here and The Stanley Parable, leverage the unique and bizarre nature of the interactive medium for their jokes and clever observations, while others, like GTA, are more restrained and satirical. Dark Farts: Parody Smell Edition is looking to join the ranks of the gaming comedy genre.

If the title didn’t already give it away, Dark Farts: Parody Smell Edition prizes toilet humor above all else. The protagonist, who is depicted with an incongruous accent, uses the power of magical farts to fight enemies. But he also has a warhammer, which he wields with one hand, making the fart powers akin to something like magic in traditional melee action games. Dark Farts attempts to riff on the often self-serious soulslike genre with its emphasis on flatulence, but whether it does so successfully remains to be seen.

Dark Farts: Parody Smell Edition Is Basically ‘Scary Movie’ in Video Game Form, for Better or Worse

The 2000s were a simpler time. There was no generative AI, the internet was fresh-faced and mostly unconquered, and the future seemed bright enough that there was little need to worry about it. This laid-back attitude of the masses was channeled into a bevy of intentionally low-brow cinematic endeavors the likes of which simply aren’t seen anymore. These gutter-humor projects, often helmed by filmmakers like Keenan Ivory Wayans and the inseparable duo Jason Friedman and Aaron Seltzer, shirked the pretentious subtleties of Hollywood through parody films like Vampires Suck, Scary Movie, and Epic Movie, which poke fun at various real-world films through toilet humor and over-the-top stunts.

These sorts of films have fallen out of vogue, but it would seem that their spirit lives on in Dark Farts. Obviously, the game is riffing on Dark Souls with its title and overall approach to combat (its Steam page literally calls it a “Souls-like parody”), though it seems to be making fun of Skyrim at several points too, whether that’s through its Dragonborn-esque Chosen One plot or its Nordic-influenced aesthetics. And like the aforementioned movies, Dark Farts is all about gross-out humor, irreverence, and fourth-wall breaks, regularly calling attention to the fact that it’s a work of fiction and a video game.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

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Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)Start

Dark Farts Suffers from the Same Pitfalls as Scary Movie and Its Successors

In Dark Farts, toilet humor and pop culture references are on full blast, just like the movie projects of that time. The game will regularly point to things like microtransactions, DLC, difficulty settings, and the contrived nature of the hero’s journey, though it doesn’t actually say much about these subjects. Similarly, it makes references to real-world power structures, with its major villains having names like Vlad Puffin and Lord Bez-Off, Hoarder of Boxes and Supreme Prime Overlord—obvious plays on Vladimir Putin and Jeff Bezos.

Its Steam price is unclear, but its PlayStation Store page lists it for $20. It should be noted that this game can be beaten in about two hours, with virtually no side content, basic assets, and so forth. It’s very basic, in other words, so if someone isn’t excited about the toilet humor necessarily, then this may not be for them.

Dark Farts Features

• A protagonist who won’t stop breaking the fourth wall!
• Master the revolutionary “Gas-Souls” combat system
• Weapons-grade dad jokes and ridiculous RPG mechanics!
• Demolish epic bosses with over-the-top attacks and absurd finishers!
• Intense battles with tech billionaires and absurd villains!
• Feast on magical bean burritos for power-ups (now with 100% more dramatic zoom-ins!)
• Strike fabulous poses while delivering devastating attacks!
• Multiple endings based on your playstyle and gas-meter management!

Is Dark Farts So Bad It’s Good?

For those who do enjoy the toilet humor, shock value, or emphasis on farts, Dark Farts might be a worthwhile excursion. At the very least, like some of the aforementioned movies, perhaps it’ll bea “so bad it’s good” experience. Shock-based or gross-out humor certainly has its fans, and if you’re one of them, then perhaps this game, for all its jank, will get a few chuckles out of you.