Mr. Sleepy Man

This is a fun, extremely polished collectathon-like experience focused on experimentation and discovery, with insanely detailed lore, in the style of n64 games of yore, a deep message about nostalgia, an amazing soundtrack (If Dreams Remain is a total banger) and...it's all made by ONE guy? Like, tripleA games should be ashamed by what the DeSanti one-man-army accomplished, refined, and charged with feeling and emotion. Is this for everyone? maybe not unless you're into 3d platformer and adventure games. Was it fun for me? absolutely, though the nostalgia left me with a heavy heart. I can't wrap my head around why this game isn't more popular and dominating the retrogaming communities, getting interviews, and hopefully a community that will dig into the game and reveal its most hidden secrets if there's more - and I think a lot has gone undiscovered yet. I just have the feeling that there's more to the ending that nobody has find out yet.

Mr. Sleepy Man is an impressive debut from solo developer Devin Santi: a colourful, absurdist send-up of 90’s collectathon platformers that revels in nostalgia with one hand and flips it off with the other. The story is a bit a bit shaggy - you play a sleepy man attempting to unpack the complex trauma of your…mentor? Friend? He’s wracked with anguish over the loss of his other friend - a prominent cereal mascot - see, they used to be real tight, just play this game-within-a-music-video-within-a-game, it’ll all make sense. What we’re really getting at here is a takedown of nostalgia, in games and in life. To sleep, to idle in dreams, is to stay static, choosing the comfort of predictable and orderly games over the fear and risk of moving forward in life. Teefy isn’t happy gazing at his pointedly-named Lonely 64 - really, he’s miserable trying to conjure up a long-gone past with Dinosaur Jones - but he’d much rather stay in a land where time literally refuses to pass than to accept that he’s chasing a dream he can no longer return to. It’s up to our indifferent sleeper - whose own dreams remain a mystery - to teach him a lesson. Where the story critiques nostalgia, the gameplay invokes it, inviting comparisons to classic Rare platformers - though the dashes of dark, absurd humour prevent the game from being regarded as pure pastiche. Mr. Sleepy Man certainly hopes you’re awake enough to notice the underlying tension in its presentation, and not sleepwalk through your playthrough and treat it only as another indie throwback. The game’s structure will prove challenging and maybe confusing to some. Sleepy is not interested in holding your hand, and while it’s not too complicated an experience, the lack of tutorializing and clear missions create an imbalance the game is excited to play with, throwing unusually shaped and arranged levels at you just to see how you respond. This gleeful sense of chaos is woven throughout; the rigid objectives of a standard collectathon are shattered and reassembled into a bizarre mosaic. To complete our objectives there are some characters we need to help, but most we need to torment. Of the core five items needed to complete the main game, some of them come from boss battles that come at the end of meaty exploration sections; others appear after relatively trivial interactions with nearby NPCs. Collectibles abound - kind of. I gathered all of the game’s 64 “shiny things”, each of which required a reasonable bit of work to earn. Additionally there are scores of other objectives available, most of which are strange, obscure, and unrewarded. It’s interesting, considering the game’s cynical approach to the genre, that many players boast uncritically their delight in thoroughly accomplishing tasks like “bother a tulpa of Jerry Seinfeld 17 times”. (Hey, I did it too - I wanted to see if anything would happen.) The lopsided approach to structure and objective is mostly a matter of taste, and how much one wishes to be in on the joke. There are some weaknesses that feel less tongue-in-cheek, chief among them the score of mechanics that are introduced (MM-style time loops, OoT-style musical spells, Sunshine-style pure platformer levels, Banjo-style move upgrades) and used less than a handful of times. These make for some exceptional moments of delight and challenge, but they feel a bit suffocated by the game’s unwillingness to pick a gameplay direction and stick with it. (It should be said for those who are picky about such things: there are some minor bugs, but not enough to really affect my playthrough. The breadth of material, the strong art direction, and the impressive sound and music design more than overcome a few technical limitations.) Overall, those looking for a classic-feeling platformer will find a lot to like in Mr. Sleepy Man, though it can feel at times like you’re playing a title you were a little too young for with a lost game manual. There’s more slumbering below the surface, though, making Mr. Sleepy Man worth a deeper consideration.

what a joyful little game. one can clearly see the early 3d era influences, in a world with its very own artstyle. the gameplay feels sometimes a little bit challenging, but not in a too frustrating way. thank you for this funny experience!

My friedn came over and without my permission played through this game and RUINED ALL MY PROGRESS. Gameplay was great, but I would not reccommend. Lost a friendsihp to this game. Best level was with Clog the Frog. Would recommend only because of Clog the Frog. They should make a sequel where you can play as Clog and make him say Zorp. lol that would be funny cause its a made up word lol. Zorp. Also check out my secondary channel.

I have to say I am not disappointed <3 I'm wanting to be a game developer myself and seeing all you've done really does inspires me <3 <3 <3 <3 <0.0< <(0.0)> >0.0> , I will say tho the one of the boss fights was easy to cheese ;3

Genuinely one of the best games of all time with a dev who responds and actually ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cares about his game like literally everything is good about this game, the music is absolutely phenomenal and nostalgic to games from the early 2000s. I dont normally write reviews but this game is a masterpiece made by ONE DUDE like what the ♥♥♥♥. You can just tell theeres so much heart and soul put into this as a whole. Already buying copies for my friends just to support this i love it so much.

Epic. as a platformer game is not so good. Some section are too challenging. bad control in air does not help. backflip. It get triggereg all the time, but fail when you need it. After some point you get stuck. No clue how to progress.

OMG he is such a lil sleepy buddy baby ?! Jokes aside, I quickly felt the desire to give this game a positive review as it has immediately delighted me with its humor, art style and direction. The gameplay, to me, also felt satisfying both in discovering the moves the snoozy hero can do and seeing just how bouncy and responsive he reacts to inputs. In true Mr. Sleepy Man fashion, do note that I have written this here review way past my bedtime !

It's like a middle ground between Banjo Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day. Classic collectathon gameplay loop, reminiscent of old school N64 era. Great writing — fun edgy humor, but not too raunchy; amazing original soundtrack to top it off.

This game is like if Mario has a baby with Untitled Goose Game and the baby came out a small man and drank 7 bottles of cough syrup. It’s funny, smooth, and addictive so far. Only one bug where [spoiler]Baby bear turned invisible after saving him so I couldn’t carry him back[/spoiler] but the whole point is multiple runs anyway. Great game