On Mar. 26, “ENA: Dream BBQ” released its first ever chapter for free on Steam. Now, I have been following the “ENA” series for a decent while now. For those who don’t know, “ENA” is an animated YouTube series featuring a character by the name of Ena. Each episode is its own separate thing, telling different adventures.
The first ever known instance of Ena was a GIF of the character posted by the series’ creator, Joel Guerra, on Twitter in 2020 who said “I’ve always had in my mind this idea of making characters with strange shapes in a colorful world where nothing makes sense.” This post was liked by many and would eventually lead to the creation of the series on YouTube.
Even further down the line, they would eventually make his first game as well. That very game was “ENA: Dream BBQ”, which they made with the help of a small team.
The series is known for its incorporation of various art styles and its late 1990s and early 2000s PC aesthetic. Within many of the episodes, it takes the form of an old computer game, in a sense, and features a variety of characters that typically speak different languages and have their own unique voices.
Each character’s personalities tend to be very strange and otherworldly sometimes.
Many times there are characters that speak what almost feel like incoherent sentences.
The dialogue can have this eerie feeling to it, especially with the way that these characters may drag out words or pauses in speech. Despite the eeriness of it, there is some level of charm that just draws me into the world of this series.
This series is four episodes long and approximately 36 minutes total in length if you were to watch all of it. It is very strange and really charming, so I highly suggest giving it a try before playing “ENA: Dream BBQ.”
Now, “ENA: Dream BBQ” is a game that was announced all the way back in 2021 that has the player playing as a different variant of the Ena we know and love. One thing I forgot to mention is that Ena has multiple personalities that switch to show different emotions. Typically, one side depicts sadness and the other joy, but with this Ena, there are two different sides. One side is that of a salesperson, and the other side is bossy.
Over the course of the game’s development, there have been occasional updates on its progress. After playing through the first chapter and going through most of what it has to offer, I can confidently say that this game gives off the exact feeling of watching an episode of “ENA.”
The game follows this new version of Ena as she tries to complete her job alongside a man in a frog costume named Froggy. It is kind of elusive as to what your job is. All that is known is that your target is the boss, and the only way to get to the boss is by getting one of the genies to turn off the smoke machine that is generating the thick cloud of smoke blocking your way.
As you go through this journey, you are given a couple of tasks and meet a variety of interesting characters, such as, my personal favorite, the Shaman. The Shaman’s art style is clearly based on, or at least partially inspired by, the animations from the strange and infamous old “Legend of Zelda” CD-i games. He sounds like your stereotypical old wise wizard from movies, which I find very charming.
At one point, the Shaman assigns Ena to go out and create life itself so that she may reach the “bathroom.” So, before leaving, he tells Ena to go away and “get a life.” This line was honestly really funny to me, especially how casually but seriously it is stated. The voice acting for the character is so well done, but this can be said about many of the other characters, especially Ena’s voice actors.
There are many really creepy and strange moments throughout this game that have me extremely curious towards what direction it may be going in the future, and these moments are only built upon further with bossy Ena’s amazing voice acting.
The game carries this very surreal feeling to it as well, which makes sense, as the original series is also heavily surreal. Despite the randomness of the game though, it still feels coherent in some strange way, which I greatly appreciate.
This was probably one of the best games I’ve played in a bit. The voice acting, animation, music and overall aesthetic are really well done and have even inspired me to incorporate the aesthetic into some of my own projects. The character’s personalities are also so charming to me, and I just can’t wait to see where the story of this game will be going from here, as this is only the first chapter.
The game is free on Steam, so if you have a computer, I highly suggest checking it out.
It is a really enjoyable time, especially if you appreciate games with unique art styles and strange, but interesting characters. It truly is a really charming but also bizarre experience.