Jazzpunk
Jazzpunk is a single-player, first-person adventure game that focuses on exploration and comedy rather than puzzle solving. Each mission has a central objective, but the player can explore the game world at his/her own pace, populated by a variety of interactive NPCs, each with its own action or gag. Mini-games such as miniature golf, a Frogger clone and a version of Duck Hunt, in which the player has to throw cardboard ducks with slices of bread from a toaster, also play an important role in the game's storyline.
Story
The game centers on a top-secret espionage department operating in an abandoned subway station in late 1950s Japan. The player takes on the role of Polyblank, a mute protagonist. The game begins with Polyblank being sent to the spy agency in a human-shaped suitcase. The head of the organization gives him various missions, all of which begin with taking a dose of prescription medication and end with the protagonist sitting on a bench in a Zen garden feeding koi fish with breadcrumbs. The missions assigned to Polyblank are almost always whimsical and nonsensical, relying heavily on free association and allusions to older movies and video games. Tasks include degaussing and smuggling pigeons, murdering cowboys, cross-dressing, killing a pig with a six-string guitar, and photocopying Polyblank's butt to fool a security scanner. The first mission begins with Polyblank infiltrating a Soviet consulate to recover a data tape, the second with him going to a sushi restaurant to steal a cowboy's artificial kidney. On his way back from the sushi restaurant, Polyblank is intercepted by agents who demand that he hand over the "wetware," but he escapes. The director then tells Polyblank to take a vacation while they wait for the situation to calm down. When Polyblank arrives at the Kai Tak Resort, he receives a phone call telling him to find the syndicate's man (the editor) on the spot and trade briefcases with him. Polyblank succeeds, but then passes out after drinking a cocktail. Polyblank wakes up at night in a hotel room and receives a message to come to the back pool. In the empty back pool, Polyblank talks to a man who tells him that the resort is a simulation and that he must find, kill and cook the mechanical pig to escape. After doing so and traversing an electrical maze, Polyblank finds himself in the subway station, only to discover that the director and his secretary are cardboard cutouts. He then finds a voice message from the editor telling him to come to his house if he wants to see them again. Polyblank goes there and learns that he must defeat the editor in a sports game in order for the director to be released. Polyblank loses, so he must find prizes for the editor. Polyblank does this and inflates the editor's ego, then stabs him with a needle. Polyblank then finds the director and must either press a button to free him. No matter which Polyblank presses, the director turns into a crocodile and eats Polyblank. The credits take place in the director's guts, and then Polyblank gets special pills that help him get out. The game ends after Polyblank takes the tablets.