This has truly been one of the best years in recent memory for 3D platformers, and we’re not even through March yet. Mr. Sleepy Man isn’t quite one of the best of the recent batch, but it’s one of the only games in the genre that I feel is a legitimate piece of art. I had some issues with its controls and camera here and there, plus figuring out what you’re supposed to do can be quite difficult due to a lack of signposting, but the humour, art direction, and a surprisingly effective story about heartbreak make the game stand out in some very unique ways.
You play as the titular character in Mr. Sleepy Man, although he doesn’t talk, and we don’t really know what his name is or where he comes from. The game begins with you putting a cartridge into a Nintendo 64-esque console before Sleepy is woken up by Toofy, a head with arms, legs, and a single tooth. Toofy has pulled Sleepy into a memory of Bedtime Town so that he can collect items obtained via breaking its inhabitants’ hearts, all so he can play a heartbreaking song and put the town to rest for good. Although the game is quite funny and very silly most of the time, it actually has some really dark undercurrents and some surprising ideas to convey about letting go of broken dreams.
Initially, Mr. Sleepy Man doesn’t really do much to explain itself. You’re thrust into the town with little explanation and have to figure things out on your own. It reminds me of Outer Wilds for this reason and many others. You can explore the town itself in addition to its connected areas, all to try and find the five heartbreak items. You’ll also collect cloud coins (finding four increases your maximum health) and shiny objects that can be used to unlock a feature akin to warping. A fair amount of the game’s objectives can be a bit inscrutable, though, as I had trouble figuring out how to get some of the shiny objects.
One of the other surprising facts about the game is that it’s heavily inspired by Majora’s Mask. Time passes continually while you’re in town, and certain tasks will only become available at specific times. Similarly, others will cease to be available if you’re too late. For instance, there’s a woman tied to one of the heartbreak items who spends much of the day driving around in a circle, and you need one of her belongings, which is naturally only available in a couple of specific circumstances. However, the game doesn’t kick you out once too much time has passed, so you’re free to explore as long as you want, despite the fact that certain aspects will be unavailable.
You can reset the game’s clock pretty easily. You’ll also often go to Nowhere, which is the sandy abyss that constitutes the game’s reality. There are collectibles here, too, but it’s a smaller environment. Its main defining feature is that it has tons of broken television sets sitting around. These are where you insert shiny objects in order to activate the aforementioned warps. Completing certain tasks will put an image on the TVs, and interacting with these after inserting the right number of shiny objects will allow you to skip straight to the event depicted on it. This also lets you replay certain sections if you so choose.
All of this is incredibly clever and quite unique, plus piecing it all together is satisfying. Figuring out how to accomplish certain things is easier said than done, however, as Mr. Sleepy Man really needed better signposting in spots. Of course, this is a 3D platformer, so what makes or breaks it is the gameplay. Sleep gets a blanket early on that lets him glide, plus he can do a dodge roll, swing a pillow as a weapon, and slide on a pillow for extra speed. The game controls pretty well, but it felt stiffer than I would have liked. Sleepy can do a sort of single-use air attack that launches him forward, but this is incredibly unwieldy and risky to use as a dive for the platforming.
If Sleepy dodge rolls into an object, it cancels his momentum and has a brief cooldown before he can move. Considering that this roll and picking objects up are mapped to the same button by default, this can often lead to accidents happening. Objects that have been picked up can be thrown by holding the button used to pick them up, but I found this to be fairly finicky as well. The camera itself often constitutes a problem too, as it tends to go behind walls without turning said wall transparent. It also has a tendency to wig out and stop being responsive. It all adds up to a somewhat problematic degree of control.
Mr. Sleepy Man also exhibits buggy behaviour in addition to the above. At one point, I went through an opening, and the area transition didn’t happen, so Sleepy just walked up against the boundary. Another time, I did this, and Sleepy walked right through and fell through the world. One time, all inputs stopped working for me, and I had to force the program to shut down. All of this can lead to a good deal of frustration. Speaking of which, a Christmas-themed level becomes available once you beat the game, but I couldn’t collect the shiny object at the very end. It’s possible that I just didn’t understand what to do, but it seemed impossible regardless.
This is a game you can beat very quickly as long as you know what to do, much like Outer Wilds, so it’s very knowledge-gated. The final boss will pose a larger problem with less health, of course, which is certainly one reason to wait. Much of the game’s content isn’t at all required for completion, though, but there was clearly a lot of effort put into everything, all the same. The visuals are charming, and the level design is memorable and very clear, even when I wasn’t sure what the game wanted me to do to accomplish certain things. It’s just got a very surreal, dreamlike aesthetic, and I very much liked exploring.
Mr. Sleepy Man has some issues when it comes to its controls, camera, and stability, but it really is a very creative, endearing game despite them. It’s funny, it’s creepy, it’s thought-provoking, and it’s flat-out weird, so fans of stranger games will get the most mileage here. People who love Outer Wilds and Majora’s Mask will also probably get a kick out of its time-gated elements (and its big, weird moon,) even if fans of 3D platformers might find certain elements aren’t quite up to snuff.
Mr. Sleepy Man: Weird yet wonderful, Mr. Sleepy Man delivers a heartfelt story and charming quirks, but not without problematic bugs infiltrating dreams. – Andrew Farrell
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