The first review on my site!
Hello reader, and welcome to Verdeck Reviews; I plan on reviewing niche or strange content and keeping up-to-date with the latest virtual weirdness. With that said, let's get into the topic of this review;

SIT AND SPIN ADVENTURE!

So, what is it?

Sit and Spin Adventure was created by Zakk August, also known by @zakkpowertennis, in 2015 as a web game. It was originally proof-of-concept for a short adventure game but ended up being a wacky web browser game experiment with lots of hilarious gimmicks.

Some people are probably already thinking "this game's a decade old, is it worth covering?" to which I will assure you, YES, yes it is, as I would argue, and have others, that this game brings a new experience most modern games lack, especially of its genre;

The game itself can easily be described as a "walking simulator," but regardless of the 2015 MLG humour present in one of the game's segments, the mechanics and idea bring to light a fresh experience.
The game also has a peculiar art style, taking from stock photos and images of celebrities or movie characters and pasting them into environments that clash heavily. It's not the most aesthetically-pleasing game, but that seems to be the point. Y'know, the whole "graphics don't matter" argument.

The game is currently only playable via an upload by "kazooycar" on GameSalad (first result you'll get looking up "Sit and Spin Adventure,) as the original hosted link leads to a disappointing 404 page these days. Matter of fact, as of writing this, I'm unable to access "zaugust.net" without ending up on a 404 page; perhaps this is the absolute death of a legend's website.

GIF of Sit and Spin Adventure's menu. Source: Author

The character (yes, character) you play as is a sentient "Sit and Spin," a nostalgic Playskool toy in which you sit... and spin.
Your primary objective isn't clear outside of being told basic controls, but you're meant to wander around, interact with peculiar non-playable characters of varying medias and interact with glistening points of interest.
The game is heavy with its comedy and doesn't have any serious lore or any enemies to fight, you don't get chased by anything and everything only progresses as you do.

GIF of Sit and Spin Adventure. Source: Author

However, you often have different routes you can take that are one-way only, often with no way of back-tracking until you come to a "GAME OVER" screen that gently tells you to press ENTER to restart. This is where the loop begins...

Oftentimes with these "dead ends" comes some way to help you progress through the game, whether it's a man in a cauldron telling you to make a wizard laugh by honking a clown horn or or Pee-Wee Herman telling you how to speak to frogs, or even perhaps you going into law school and obtaining an "OBJECTION" mallet, you should normally find yourself constantly trying to explore with your newfound abilities.
The game actually has no save mechanic to it, so not only do you have to play it in one go, but all of the things you unlock... are actually already unlocked! The game just tells you what keys to hit and sometimes even where. No wonder the controls screen was so omniously bland, it was keeping us from thinking this game had other mechanics... How clever!

Throughout the game are several different letters or numbers that are implied to unlock something if pressed simultaneously; however, there are 6 of these and depressing them all at once is a bit awkward but do-able in the end.
The true ending of the game is somewhere by the time where you find the George Washington head (if you're lost, after climbing down the rope, head to the right to find an arrow pointing off screen) and understand that O is for OBJECTION! The game has a way of not being too direct at times, giving the player a moment to question whatever the hell the "guiding pointer" is... until the realization hits that it's referring to the literal mouse pointer. The game fucks with you by not only forcing you to discover additional keybinds, but also by only having one instance ever where your cursor actually comes into play. Outside of clicking on the Chalice of Friendship, there's no other use for your mouse besides switching tabs or exiting the game.

GIF of Sit and Spin Adventure. Source: Author

Alas, is the ending... Which is hand-signed by Zakk himself, and gives you a new mechanic... X to scream. This isn't an entirely interesting ending in itself but the interesting part is what occurred beforehand, where your Sit and Spin character is in front of a chalkboard.
While this might not make a whole lot of sense at first, that's because there's a sequel to Sit and Spin Adventure that clears this up... and adds a whole lot more depth to the series....

GIF of Sit and Spin Adventure's ending. Source: Vinesauce

Sit and Spin Adventure 2: Truth//Reason Second Final

So now there's lore... and a second Sit and Spin... okay.

Similarly to the previous game, the controls are no different (although stylized differently,) but it's your classic WASD and Space key...
Right off the bat, the game starts with the pink Sit and Spin we once knew, introducing us back at the chalky chalkboard. Upon progressing, the pink Sit and Spin comes across a throne that telepathically or metaphorically speaks to it, promising to the individial wealth, power, and best of all, an unlimited LTE data plan. The Sit and Spin is consumed by this and gently touches the throne, causing the screen to dip to white and fade out to a book being slid onto on a desk, which is shortly revealed to have been being read by a green Sit and Spin!
Although unnamed much like the previous Sit and Spin, this green Sit and Spin is an entirely different character and is the one you primarily play as.

GIF of Sit and Spin Adventure 2. Source: Author

The game having cutscenes is already a big improvement from the original game, and they don't just stop there.
But also, of course, mechanics are figured out via progressing through the game, however, unlike the first game, these mechanics are truly locked until you've interacted with the correct thing. If you're curious about how backtracking works though... it works very similarly, except once you are out of the castle you started in and obtain the emerald, you can actually press Enter to teleport back to a starting location (there's multiple technically)!

With the locked mechanics in mind though, the game forces you to visit the barbershop in order to obtain a... magick arrow of some sort, to which the barber tells you it's only useful in other dimensions.
Once you get out of there, you can actually enter the village though.

GIF of Sit and Spin Adventure 2. Source: Author

...And it's entering through that portal that the true gameplay is revealed; all you were doing beforehand is preparing by talking to the residents and obtaining the emerald (and arrow, for later).
This game introduces you to a few fetch quests that seem nonsensical, such as a sentient flower wanting a pair of boots, but that seems to be the norm in this strange world that now inhabits a couple characters from other medias. However, transportation gets really interesting once you find the use for the arrow, realizing you don't actually have to start back from where you entered the newfound dimension, but rather you can travel to certain hotspots when unlocked. The game doesn't tell you when these locations are unlocked so you just have to check when you visit a wildly different place.

Throughout the game you unlock items, in which can be used immediately but you still need to talk to NPCs in order to figure out the keybinds. Rather than items being assigned to one value, they're usually assigned to 1-3, meaning pressing three buttons at once just to use an object.
Regardless, the amount of items you unlock is quite a lot and the game has a lot more exploration than Sit and Spin Adventure. As previously mentioned too, the game has a story but it isn't properly told up until you come across a frozen tundra late game, which is extremely similar to the first game; things are dead and houses are boarded up though and snow takes over everything. The castle that once belonged to the wizard that was defeated by L (stands for Laughs!) is pure frozen over and throughout the inside.

You find a cloaked figure and talk to them, to which they reveal they were the reason for the eternal freeze, alongside the fact that you're a mere manifestation of their soul, and that they've waited over a thousand years just for you to come across what they've done to their own home. And then the two brawl via the most badass cutscene in the entire game.