Blues for Mattavinda
Well Howdy Partners. Why don’t you sit on down for a spell and let me tell you one of the oddest western tales ever told. Our tale is known as Blues for Mattavinda.
The story of Mattavinda was created by an artistic fella that goes by the name of Jack King-Spooner. You might recognize the name from the games Will You Ever Return 1 & 2.
Ya see, ole Jack King-Spooner is a quite unique game developer. He has an odd artsy style like no other. This western tale here is no exception. Its as obscure as games come I recon.
Our story starts off with an odd introduction from a clay cowboy with a really creepy-like voice. Hes rambling on about chaos, life, death, and some other crazy sounding talk.
The wild western themed music sets the atmosphere as you really get that cowboy feel going. It gives you that feeling like its gonna be time to draw your pistola at high noon.
After the narrator and music set the tone, we start off our tale with our protagonist Mattavinda talking to his old Pop. His father is dying ya see, and he sends his boy to find the wise man Tondo.
So you set off on an adventure to find the wise Tondo. As you talk to the town folk you get mixed reviews on this so called wise man. Some folks seem to think the world of him, while other think hes a no good dirty sidewinder.
After a little bit of investigating you find ole Tondo strumming on his guitar just past the watering hole. You tell him about your ole sick Pop and ask for his help. He agrees to help if you can bring him the person who hasn’t tried “Fried Bean”.
Now I know what your thinking. Fried beans? Hasn’t everyone in the west tried fried beans? That’s an odd request to save a mans life. No matter how odd the request might sound ole Mattavinda is willing to do whatever it take to save his dying Pop.
So you set off and your new side-quest. When you stop to talk to the fisherman at the fishing hole you briefly get to see the world through the eyes of a fish. This doesn’t really have to do anything with the story, but its a weird scene worth notating.
On your side quest you come across a dying women lying over yonder. She might be the rare person in the west who hasn’t tried fried beans, so you go over to talk to her. Her conversation with our lead cowboy was the last one she ever had.
After talking to everyone again it seems everyone has tried friend beans. A cowboy tells a story of some business that needed to be settled over in chaos territory.
On the way the 3 cowboys in the story stop to get Tondo’s blessing. Tondo flips a coin. If it lands on heads they will return laughing, if it lands on tails there will be trouble. Tondo flips the coin and it lands on tails.
Despite the bad omen they go to settle the score anyway. 3 man left for the dispute, but only 2 return. The coin had tails on both sides. The cowboy tells you if you see Tondo to tell him to watch his step.
Since everybody has tried friend beans we return to Tondo. If the creepy narrator, the friend bean quest, and playing as a fish wasn’t weird enough for you, this is where it really gets trippy.
I don’t want to spoil it for you completely. I even left some of the game for you to uncover for yourself after the video.
Tondo gets you to close your eyes for something like a meditation exercise. He talks about chaos and reality basically. I’ve wrestled with the likes of the concept hes trying to get across myself, but there is a chance the point Jack King-Spooner is trying to make will blow your mind.
I liked everything about this game. Its one of the greatest free indie games I’ve ever played. From the cool western music, to the odd story, this game is so cool. It was even fun to write about. If you’ve never run across this artistic odd masterpiece of a game, I highly recommend it.
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