The cheerful nihilism of Jazzpunk is its own reward

Sam Nelson returns to the Digest guest chair for our chat-’n’-chew review show this month, and first we’re talking about Jazzpunk. The Gameological critic who reviewed Jazzpunk, Steve Heisler, got some laughs out of the game but found it too insubstantial. Once I played the game, it wasn’t hard to see where Steve was coming from, but I had a different reaction. While it’s certainly esoteric, the weird, disparate pieces are bound together by a voice that’s self-mocking and not self-indulgent. Sam didn’t entirely agree.