This week on Critical Arcade, Dave and Nick dust off their detective hats, light a cigarette under the flickering glow of a neon sign, and step into the rain-soaked, crumbling streets of dystopian Vancouver in Backbone. This isn’t your average pixel-art adventure — it’s a smoky, jazz-drenched neo-noir where everyone’s an animal, the city’s rotting from the inside, and the truth is far more terrifying than it first appears.

Players take on the role of Howard Lotor, a weary raccoon private investigator barely scraping by, whose latest case — finding a missing husband — leads him into a web of corruption, crime, and existential horror. What starts as a simple domestic investigation quickly unravels into a conspiracy involving the city’s oppressive class system, grotesque secrets hidden by its powerful elite, and a mystery that forces Howard to confront his own humanity… or what’s left of it.

As Dave and Nick follow Howard’s trail through smoky jazz bars, shadowy back alleys, and the towering decadence of the rich, they’ll face moral dilemmas and uncomfortable truths. Dave spends half the episode trying to figure out if raccoons can get PTSD, while Nick insists on narrating every line like a 1940s gumshoe. The two debate everything from the meaning of the game’s shocking transformation in its final act to whether or not the raccoon trench coat counts as “drip.”

Will Dave keep his cool as the story descends into surreal, body-horror-infused madness? Can Nick make sense of the game’s philosophical curveball ending — or will he just blame it on “art”? And most importantly, can anyone really find hope in a world built on lies and fur?

Find out as the Critical Arcade crew peel back the layers of Backbone — a haunting, beautifully realized descent into noir, nostalgia, and nihilism that asks not just who we are, but what we’re willing to become.

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