Oh...Sir!! The Insult Simulator

While I understand the reasons why this game gets lower scores, I found it to be an excellent party game. And for $2 - it was well worth it. I've played it solo, and that has been fun as well, but I think the fun comes into play when you have it hooked up to a big screen, while people are gathered talking about things they really don't care about - trying to impress one another - and all of a sudden they start to notice some odd voices and odd sentence structures coming from the TV. It captures the room. Comments like "what is this stupid game?" and "did you actually pay for this?" are heard - and yet these scoffers are lured in to eventually playing it alongside other victims of the insults. Yes, for $2 we entertained a group of people for a few hours. We laughed at each other, slapped our knees, and enjoyed communicating things to one another through a video game that we ordinarily would shy away from proclaiming. It was a lot cheaper than most other forms of entertainment, and we still laugh about it to this day. I will probably pick it up and play some more of it one of these days. If used properly, this game can entertain even those with the lowest of IQ's - which I am undoubtedly one of them. I think. Thank you, Sir.

Obviously this game cannot be taken seriously, and it doesn't aim to. It's just for laughs though some cultural reference knowledge is recommended (Sean Connery, Lovecraft...)... If the game DOES NOT WORK - i.e. just exits right on start (the game screen never shows), or if the game outright complains about something regarding "x_input", then you are probably just missing some DirectX components - (re-) installing the DirectX June 2010 redistributables from Microsoft has fixed that on more than one occasion for me - yes also on Windows 10! Also thanks to "Genoan" from GOG support for pointing that out 5 years ago ;-)

‘Oh…Sir!! The Insult Simulator’ is a little game of verbal jousting about ridiculous things like a dead parrot and a first-class seat on the train. Just these scenarios alone set the tone for the game, and it only gets sillier once the arguments begin. This game’s title may evoke memories of Insult Sword Fighting from ‘The Secret of Monkey Island’, but the game plays nothing like that. While Insult Sword Fighting is about slinging insults and comebacks back and forth in a series of repartees, ‘TIS’ plays more like a card game with open hands, with each player trying to build a hand with the most points. So, don’t expect the same level of wit and type of gameplay. In ‘TIS’, each verbal jouster takes turns choosing words from a common pool to compose an insult. Each jouster can also draw or swap for 2 new words or sentence fragments in each round. Additional points are awarded – that is more damage is dealt – if the insult ends up hitting your opponent’s sore spot (e.g. mocking their age), follows a theme to set up combos, and are particularly rude. Since both jousters can see what words are up for grabs, as well as their opponent’s and their own sore spots, there is some strategizing involved when composing insults. That’s why ‘TIS’ is more like an open-handed card game with words, and can be rather fun. Yet, with the selection of words to choose from being (somewhat) randomized, not all insults being slung end up sharp, witty, or even make sense. With that and the faux-old-timey-Britishness of the whole affair, the game is more silly than funny or witty. With just 5 scenarios to argue over, the novelty of composing and slinging insults can quickly wear thin after a couple of hours. Yet, there’s more fun and even challenge to be had if you’re into unlocking hidden characters and achievements. At its price point, ‘TIS’ is a hard game to resist, especially if you’re into juvenile insults, or feels like arguing with and insulting a caricature over a cup of tea.

Pros: (1) fun, interesting design - especially if you are a nerd and like to admire implementation (ooh, is that a context-free grammar validator? it's very cool how the settings and the characters can all contribute to the insult); (2) room for strategic play, e.g. choosing fragments to block what your opponent can say; (3) some behind-the-scenes scoring rules that mean you can't say complete nonsense and hope to win. Cons: (1) not enough content - just 5 stages it's a shame, really, because the system could have supported a way greater variety of content, more connected "stories", etc. (2) way too many monty python references. yes, it's a game about nonsensical and silly insults, so it's more appropriate than in other games; but the fraction of content that's a monty python reference is ridiculous, and the references are usually straight up "remember this thing someone else made, wasn't that funny?" rather than any kind of commentary. Make up your own jokes and funny phrases!

IT IS A BRITISH THING. You have probably seen everything after a couple of argument matches and it gets repetitive. It is a practically madlibs with a super-limited word selection and a strict grammar requirement, making up sentences in chunks. E.g. your mother + is deceased + and + has never seen Star Wars. This implementation eliminates the fun imaginative part of madlibs of coming up with stupid words and stupid meanings. You cannot form anything high brow or clever (double entendres, satire) with a pre-selected word set and the given words are barely applicable to one other. Very often the word selection is so terrible, you are forced to make arguments "your math teacher was born in you, sir." The good parts are the British accents of various unlockable characters that read your awkward argument aloud and the brief party game / surprise-a-friend potential. The game is simple and situational in its use as there is not much there to play without getting bored. I would rather play conventional madlibs and make up my own goofy sentences without any vocabulary or grammar limits.