WARNING: Best Month Ever! is set in the United States in the 1960’s, and deals with sensitive subjects such as racism, sexual violence, and other issues that unfortunately persist to this day. Terminal illness is an additional theme. Reader discretion is advised.

• Price: $19.99 USD
• Developer: Warsaw Film School Video Game & Film Production Studio
• Publisher: Klabater
• Release Date: May 5, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by The Game Marketer on behalf of Warsaw Film School Video Game & Film Production Studio as well as Klabater. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Best Month Ever! follows the journey of an eight year old boy named Mitch during the late 1960’s in the United States. His mother, Louise, discovered that she has a terminal illness, and she decided that she must teach Mitch as much as she can before she dies.

There are twelve chapters in the game. The choices you make across each chapter as Louise (or even as Mitch himself) will change Mitch’s characteristics, which will determine how he grows up and therefore which ending you’ll get. Your decisions will influence Mitch’s righteousness (attitude towards rules), confidence, and relations.

As stated above, the story deals with many issues that may be triggering for some people. The game’s options include the ability to turn on a profanity filter and hints in dialogue. You can also choose to skip QTE (quick time events) sequences.

Best Month Ever! opens with Louise going inside a diner – her former place of employment – to pick up her last paycheck. The game’s opening involves attempted sexual coercion and some arson. Peeling out of the parking lot, Louise tells Mitch that this will be the best month ever.

Louise knows that Mitch will need a new home for when she’s gone. Unfortunately, finding any of the people she would even remotely trust with Mitch will prove to be a challenge in the late 1960’s. You’ll make several stops until you reach your final destination, and there’s a long and dark road ahead.

Mitch doesn’t seem to know much of anything about their family. He is the child of a white woman and a man of color, and he takes more after his father in his appearance. Some people will use racial slurs when they speak to (or about) him.

While some of the things said in the game are completely unacceptable (which is acknowledged in the content warning at the beginning of the game), I was very impressed with the quality of the voice acting for the dialogue. The soundtrack was well done as well. Conversations are all voiced, and the adult version of Mitch also narrates some parts of the game. I do wish that we could choose when to advance the dialogue, as it does so automatically.

The credits indicate that motion capture was involved in the creation of Best Month Ever!, which is neat. Walking around felt a little clunky and slow. The text seemed to be too small even for me, and sometimes the white dots indicating an item’s interactivity were a little hard to see. It also may have been nice to have a zoom function for some areas and scenes.

While I had a few issues with those functions, I must say that I was really, really impressed with the landscapes. The game has some neat background information, such as the photographs in Louise’s family’s house. The adult version of Mitch will describe the photos and other items you come across. There are also some lovely drawings that capture scenes at the end of each chapter.

The beauty of the artistic elements serves as a counterbalance to the ugly events of Louise’s past, some of which are shown in flashback scenes. Those bad experiences were never properly resolved because of the family’s tendency to sweep them under the rug. Louise hasn’t explained a lot of things to Mitch, continuing the cycle of secrecy.

Louise also brings Mitch to some questionable locations, and allows him to drive. It feels like something of an “interactive movie” experience, which makes sense given that the developer is the “Warsaw Film School Video Game & Film Production Studio.”

Despite making some mistakes with Mitch, Louise really cares about him and wants him to have a good life. The story comes to its inevitable and sad end, and it really shows the importance of family history as well as the impact of lying about it.

I reached one of the nine endings, which I wanted to be longer so I could find out more about what happened to Mitch after his mother passes away. Playing through it again, I mostly made the choices I hadn’t picked before, but the second ending I obtained was the same one. I wasn’t entirely clear on the method of influencing the endings.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Best Month Ever! is an emotional roller coaster with its many mature themes and events. To me, Louise and Mitch have mostly negative experiences, but they still manage to find some positives along the way. What they deal with on their road trip to find Mitch a new home would not constitute my best month ever, but Mitch still considers those memories to be precious. I would have liked lengthier explanations on his adulthood, and I could have used a bit more joy to counteract some of the darkness, but overall the game has great artistic quality with its lovely backdrops and nice soundtrack. 7/10