Why I Don’t Like My Little Inferno Despite Loving It

Trigger warning: despite this being a spoiler to my article, I'd rather give a small warning here: if you're sensitive to animal abuse, please read with caution!

 

A few years back, it felt like I couldn't go a day without hearing about Little Inferno or seeing it on some sort of discount, and while I was always curious about why everyone loved such a simple game (don't judge me, I was young and stupid), I never got around to trying it myself.

Recently, however, thanks to our COVID-related financial troubles finally lifting, my wife and I have indulged a bit more in buying discounted games, and after so many years, I finally got to try it.

Whilst I went in with way less scepticism because I'm older, wiser, and more addicted to gaming, I still had my doubts that I'd ever get that into it. I figured I would play a few hours, burn the excitement of a new game, and then promptly move on and let it collect dust in my backlog for years to come. 

The reality was very different. Although Little Inferno's hook is indeed "haha fire burn", it has more to it than that. Namely, you spend a bunch of time burning all sorts of items to get money, unlock more stuff to set on fire, and then try to pair up the right things to get "combos". On paper, it sounds alright: ultimately, you're still just burning random crap, but it's actually pretty fun to look through the catalogue trying to find the right combinations, even when it's kind of easy. Besides, there's a weird little girl who keeps sending you mail, so it's always fun to see what deranged message she has that day.

The simple yet explorative and rewarding gameplay got me addicted pretty quickly, and in the blink of an eye, I had over 20 combos and most of the catalogues unlocked. I loved having to figure out what wacky combination of items I had to put together based on just a code phrase, such as "Someone Else's". It's a type of puzzle I hadn't ever experienced before, and it's oddly relaxing.

Unfortunately, as my love for this title grew, so did my disappointment. You see, I started noticing a pattern very early on in the game: a lot of the items were shocking and cruel, such as the Spider Egg, whereupon burning it, it explodes into a handful of baby spiders that you then burn to a crisp. Whilst some of these are funny or have cool/silly effects, others are just downright uncomfortable, like the cat that blurts out a mountain of poop before dying and the squirrel who's tied up to be a squeaky toy. 

I think my main issue with the animal cruelty (aside from the fact that it's animal cruelty) stems from there being no purpose for it at all. Little Inferno does have some sort of narrative, and while it isn't entirely clear, I know it's set in a messed-up world where children use chimneys as entertainment. That's why it bothers me: it isn't a straightforward story, and the sheer amount of animals being burnt and in pain seems a bit needless; I feel like one or two is enough to drive the point home.

While it did bother me since the beginning with the Spider Eggs, I kept trekking on, hoping the game would eventually move on from it. Unfortunately, catalogue after catalogue, a new animal arrived to burn, and my absolute limit was when I got to the Phoenix Egg, which is really just a bird egg set on fire so that the hatchling is born ignited. I thought it was so vile that it was done in a “ha-ha, this is so clever” type of way that I turned off the game and decided never to touch it again.

I'm pretty sensitive about animal abuse in general, so the more I played and unlocked critters to torture, the more interest I lost in the game. Little Inferno is really fun and relaxing, probably one of the puzzle titles I've enjoyed the most... but the balance between enjoyment and discomfort tilted too much to the latter; if there's a message the game is trying to put across, I've completely missed it. It's truly a bummer to see that such a simple yet unique idea gets weighed down by the needless "shock value" content, especially because I cannot imagine a lot of people will find it amusing to burn little animals, no matter how ugly they are in-game. 

A great example of using abuse as a means to tell a story is none other than The Binding of Isaac — a game that is full of (and known for) poop, vomit, blood, and abuse, but it doesn't feel misplaced or awkward. Although It's not a title for everyone — me being a good example — the violence and abuse are there for a reason: it's supposed to make you uneasy so you connect to Isaac’s story.

This is why it’s a bit frustrating that in Little Inferno, burning animals serves absolutely no purpose — eventually, it just becomes too uncomfortable and takes away from the experience because nothing follows the discomfort: no lesson, no epiphany, nothing. I suppose the game will end up gathering dust in my backlog, left uncompleted… but it wasn’t because it was a boring game as I anticipated all those years ago: it’s because I’d like to avoid the heartwrenching gameplay of setting animals on fire.