Bad Cheese Review — Steamboat Thrilly

Bad Cheese takes the cake for the most surprising title I’ve reviewed this year, not because it was better than I thought it would be or was a title I hadn’t expected to get my hands on, but because it’s one I never thought would exist in the first place. A horror game based quite obviously on Steamboat Willie, Bad Cheese delivers an artistic horror experience with phenomenal visuals and voice acting, if not the strongest actual horror. Even with its weak points, it’s a game that doesn’t need a lot of justification to exist or for you to give it a play, carrying itself heavily on its execution of an interesting theme and its solid storytelling throughout.

When a player first opens Bad Cheese, they’re met with a rather bold message: “It’s public domain, come and sue!”

This is in reference to the game’s theme, built quite obviously on the Walt Disney original Steamboat Willie, which aired in 1928. The iconic cartoon was the first depiction of the character that would become Mickey Mouse and essentially the foundation of everything Disney would become. While long the copyright of the Disney corporation, copyright law in the US only protects your claim for 95 years, meaning that in 2024, Steamboat Willie became public domain, allowing anyone to use the film and its depiction of the iconic mouse for their own purposes.

Bad Cheese cleverly uses the public domain status of Steamboat Willie to create a horror game in its likeness.

This is, however, no Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. The developers of Bad Cheese have done much more than create something to capitalize on the trend of “what if a child thing was scary?” Instead, the game serves as an overt parody and criticism of the cartoonish worldbuilding of old Disney films, as well as the time in American history these animations represented and arguably glamorized.

Characters that look straight out of the Disney ethos make their legally distinct appearance throughout this mouse’s house, which is full of reality-defying cartoonish contraptions. Some of my favorite parts of the game were interacting with the incredibly creative, over-engineered solutions to household problems, such as a turret designed to fire socks to make washing them “easier,” or a massive fry-making machine powered by potato batteries.

Very obviously, critique is put on the old concept of the American household. Our protagonist is a child of his time, spending much of his time doing chores for his parents at the threat of “upsetting” his father. The protagonist is often the target of abuse, both physical and psychological, being confined to bed so as not to bother the adults and subject to belt beatings at the whim of his father’s substance abuse problem. It is clear to see why our main character sees the world around him as grotesque and horrible monsters when he often finds himself tiptoeing just to navigate his own home.

While it is not the most subtle storytelling in the world, Bad Cheese still has a few messages to share. Besides the aforementioned parodies, I found the game to very clearly deal with the subject of parental abuse and unhealthy eating habits. The latter is especially relevant in the way our protagonist is constantly berated by his father for his weight, and even in one section, has to fight off his inner demon by shooting food into its gaping mouth, despite the warning that “fighting the monster makes you worse.” Again, it’s not the most subtle of messages, but it gets the job done and keeps the narrative interesting throughout.

Also not incredibly subtle are the game’s actual scares. Bad Cheese has an overreliance on two things for its so-called horror: weird designs and jump scares. The latter are poorly executed and far too frequent to be effective, essentially constituting a PNG appearing on your screen suddenly, occasionally with loud noise. The visual style itself, while the most interesting aspect of the game, does not help with these jump scares at all, and I never found myself jumping after the first few.

The weird designs, while certainly creepy to look at, lack any real rhyme or reason. Characters are displayed as amorphous blobs of flesh and twisted amalgamations of cartoon animals in a way that feels like it’s chasing a trend popularized by YouTuber MeatCanyon in his famous parodies. It certainly looks weird, but it lacks any actual impact or creepiness with how quickly you find yourself exposed to it.

Interestingly enough, the parts of the game that actually made me feel tension were the areas involving abuse. The first segment of the game had me tense, worried about the constant reminder that “dad will be home soon” when my chores weren’t finished. The second area that really got to me was the familiar feeling of trying to stay up quietly playing video games, with adults checking in on you, with the threat of abuse for our protagonist if he got caught. You can feel enough empathy for our little mouse hero in these and similar situations that the consequences feel believably scary, and those are the only times in the game where it actually works.

Overall, as a “horror” title, Bad Cheese kind of fails. It doesn’t provide an experience that is actually scary, though perhaps younger audiences might disagree with me. The designs, while creepy, lack any context for their malformity and so feel a little random and overexposed to the player, sucking away any real tension they could have to begin with. The jump scares are cheap and stop working fast, and the game relies on them too much, leaving little room for anything else to get under your skin.

Despite all that, I would still say Bad Cheese is worth checking out. Its premise is interesting, the art is great, and the narrative themes are engaging enough to draw your attention throughout. While not the greatest horror game in the world, it’s still a great story game and is valuable on the merit of its art if nothing else.

Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC review of Bad Cheese. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Bad Cheese is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation.