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" Release Date: January 30 Platforms available on: PC Developer: Young Horses Genre: Action-adventure octopus-sim The phrase &amp;quot;so bad, it&amp;#039;s good&amp;quot; gets thrown around frequently in discussions of campy or cult films, but generally isn&amp;#039;t applied to video games in the same way.  Sure, there are games that are endearing despite their faults, but it is rare to find one that is praised specifically because of those same faults. Katamari Damacy was one exception, with its awkward twin-stick approach to the otherwise simple task of rolling a ball, where grappling with the unconventional controls actually enhanced the pervasive silliness throughout the rest of the game.  With Octodad: Dadliest Catch, indie studio Young Horses have created a game that stands alongside Katamari Damacy as a game that gets so much right as a result of going out of its way to do everything wrong. Octodad: Dadliest Catch is a game in which you play a husband and father who has a terrible secret. He is, in fact, an octopus. He has managed to conceal his cephalopod ancestry by wearing a bright blue suit, despite looking almost exactly like a giant orange octopus wearing a bright blue suit and speaking entirely though indecipherable gurgles. It is a thing of beauty. There is even a co-operative mode allowing up to four players to each gain control of an individual limb, which turns Octodad into a sort of hilariously uncoordinated Voltron with players shouting and laughing through it all. Because he is an octopus, and thus has sticky tentacles instead of a skeleton and fine muscle control on land, Octodad: Dadliest Catch brings a joyful challenge to even the most mundane tasks. Making coffee in the morning, flipping burgers on a grill or even simply walking in a straight line become a puzzle to be solved for the family-oriented octopus, and the controls brilliantly reflect Octodad&amp;#039;s struggle. The problem with so many games based around physics puzzles is that they often require a level of precision that their physics simulations can&amp;#039;t always provide.  Octodad: Dadliest Catch avoids that problem by fully embracing its control eccentricities and saying to hell with precision.   The left and right mouse buttons will lift Octodad&amp;#039;s respective legs, and you must slide the mouse while his leg is lifted to take a step.  You can also switch control to Octodad&amp;#039;s arm for picking up and interacting with objects, which uses mouse movements to swing his right arm tentacle about and either the right mouse button or the scroll wheel to adjust the tentacle&amp;#039;s height. There is even a co-operative mode allowing up to four players to each gain control of an individual limb, which turns Octodad into a sort of hilariously uncoordinated Voltron with players shouting and laughing through it all. If the controls sound clumsy, it&amp;#039;s because they are, and they are meant to be that way. With practice, it actually is possible to gain very fine control over Octodad&amp;#039;s gait, but it is often far more fun to dash and crash across the floor in a flailing of tentacles.  Of course, as an octopus trying to pass as human, performing any unusual or ill-coordinated action in public will draw the attention and suspicion of onlookers.  Dotted lines directed toward Octodad indicate that he is in someone&amp;#039;s line of sight, and causing too much havoc in plain view will blow his cover with a game over. It adds an element of stealth as you try to move undetected through rooms packed with potential pratfalls, but it remains lenient enough that Octodad can still fool the casual passerby while squeezing his entire body through the prize slot in an arcade crane game. Perhaps then it is best to look at the missteps of the final boss as a reflection of just how horribly wrong this game could have, and arguably should have, gone from the very start. However, there are also some less successful sections of the game where its normally-lax restrictions clamp down. This is most noticeable during the mercifully infrequent boss encounters, which are accompanied by either restrictive time limits in a chase scene or punishing attacks that kill Octodad in a single hit. These encounters and their harsh restrictions abruptly clash with the sense of gleeful stumbling that permeates Octodad&amp;#039;s short adventure in parenting and matrimony. It reaches a head with a final boss that will likely inspire Octodad-like fits of frustrated flailing from players shaking fists at the screen.  The aggravating finale is compounded with the sudden introduction of framerate issues which only seem to show up during that last stage. And while Octodad: Dadliest Catch sadly doesn&amp;#039;t end on a high note, it can&amp;#039;t diminish the wonderful silliness that precedes the ending. Perhaps then it is best to look at the missteps of the final boss as a reflection of just how horribly wrong this game could have, and arguably should have, gone from the very start. After all, the ending uses the same purposefully unintuitive controls that for nearly the entire rest of the game make it impossible to play without a huge smile on your face. The brilliant design used throughout Octodad: Dadliest Catch brings out the absolute best from a bizarre concept that simply needs to be played to be believed.   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<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/review/a547326/octodad-dadliest-catch-review-pc-bizarre-in-the-best-ways/>