In 1998, many kids wanted the new Tattletail toy, and it was just in time for Christmas! However, in the 2016 story-driven first-person horror game, yours won’t stay in his box.
The game, which was developed by Waygetter Electronics and published by Little Flag Software, has cemented its spot in indie game history. In “Tattletail,” you have to take care of a Furby-like purple toy by the name of Tattletail while avoiding the relentless pursuit of Mama Tattletail, who, rumor has it, isn’t exactly kid-friendly. The player has to deal with this for five nights after opening their Christmas present early, taking care of Tattletail and his needs.
Off the bat, I really like all the main game mechanics. In “Tattletail,” the player acquires a flashlight to navigate around with—something that Mama Tattletail can kill off whenever she starts patrolling around the house or is looked at directly. This makes the flashlight a necessity in a house setting, where you don’t technically need the flashlight in certain rooms. This also makes the game difficult since replenishing the flashlight makes a ton of noise: attracting Mama Tattletail right to your location.
Mama Tattletail has a bit of a “weeping angel” mechanic, following noises either the player or their Tattletail makes and only being able to move when the player isn’t looking at her. By taking care of the baby-talking Tattletails (grooming, feeding, keeping the flashlight on cause they’re scared of the dark, etc.), they make less noise; not taking care of them just sets you up for an instant kill by Mama. That being said, I like how none of the mechanics fall short in their importance to the game, helping the difficulty and general fear factor.
Noise is a huge factor in the game, and the audio effects are done astoundingly well. Not only can you hear the doors and other movement-related sounds, but the little Tattletails and Mama have terrifying voicelines. There is one piece of dialogue that, when I was playing, scared me half to death: “Hi Mama! In the bedroom. Okay, bye bye!” I had to take a minute after being ratted out by a fictional toy.
The graphics of the game are super strong, although I do wish that the house were a little bigger. I like the effects that surround interactable objects, and the vibrancy of the Tattletail’s mood bars is a nice contrast with the rest of the game without taking you out of it entirely. The game also has red, slightly-glitchy objective texts that make the game feel more uneasy and keep things going smoothly in case you lose track of what’s going on, even appearing with the text “oh no..” when the in-game situation turns deadly!
The story works for how long the game is, especially by taking into consideration the small setting, though it could have definitely been improved upon. My only other question about it, considering my bias, is what happened to the dog! It is implied that there is a dog due to the fact that there is a dog house in the background and then dog food in the creepy basement, but a dog is never actually present in the game. I understand that there is an implication that Mama Tattletail attacked them, but having some small confirmation would allow for some peace of mind.
If you’re interested in playing with Tattletail over winter break, you can give it a shot on Steam for only $7.99!
