Image: Waygetter Electrionics
Sometimes it goes by the name Hatchimal, sometimes it goes by Furby, but every few years the cycle repeats itself. The Christmas season is terrorized by a marble-eyed fuzzy lumpkin that yips tinny gibberish non-stop, which becomes the most-desired holiday item by children across the country. In the new game Tattletail, the horror manifests more literally as your survive several nights in the company of pint-sized robotic servants of doom.A collaboration between cartoonist Geneva Hodgson, Wobbledogs maker Tom Astle, and Arcane Kid Ben Esposito (who has used Furbies and their culture in his games before), Tattletail takes the Weeping Angel formula that's so popular in horror games these days and mixes it with a "it'd be funny if it wasn't terrifying" amount of 90s nostalgia. Beginning a few nights before Christmas, your adolescent adventurer just can't wait any longer and slinks into the unrenovated basement to prematurely open their present. Lo and behold, it's the hairy wide-eyed gumdrop you always wanted, a Tattletaildoll, who coos and yammers on just as you always hoped. But unwrapping your toy has put you on the naughty list, and you'll wish it was as simple as getting a lump of coal.Your Tattletail didn't come alone. Somewhere in your house is the Mama Tattletail, a larger, vacuum-sized Teddy Ruxpin-style cassette player that can twist its head around like the kid from The Exorcist. It's been banned from stores for reasons you'll soon discover. Mama Tattletail may not always be able to see her kids, but with those plush bat ears she can certainly hear them. Night after night, you must tend to your activated Tattletail, feed it, recharge it, groom it, play with it and keep it in the light so it doesn't get scared, lest you want to hear it whine and howl, attracting the attention of the less forgiving Mama. So, as was the case in real life, the greatest challenge is figuring out how to get your 90s fad toy to finally stop making all that brain shredding noise before either you or it end up in pieces.