Banshees The Game Turns the Harrowing Banshees of Inisherin Into A Hilarious Pacman Adventure

The Banshees of Inisherin might have been snubbed at the Oscars but the harrowing movie has millions of fans – and some of them made Banshees the Game.

This hilarious arcade game turns the Banshees of Inisherin in a Pacman-esque adventure where Colm just wants to avoid people and get to the pub to have a quiet pint.

In level 1, you have to collect 5 fingers while avoiding Pádraic. Then, you have to do the same while avoiding everyone at the same time – Dominic, Pádraic’s sister, even Jenny the Donkey.

The Banshees of Inisherin game manages to turn Martin McDonagh’s heavy story into a hilarious, adrenaline-filled adventure. While I couldn’t get very far into it, I did find myself empathizing with Colm more than I did in the movie – man just wants a quiet pint alone and everyone just badgers him. As for Dominic, having to avoid him did tug at the heartstrings, since Barry Keoghan really did make you love the character.

Banshees the Game was developed by Cogs & Marvel, an Irish advertising agency, and was released on St Patrick’s Day.

According to the official announcement, that holiday and how it’s celebrated inspired the developers to apply the same reductionist, absurd treatment to McDonagh’s movie.

“St Patrick’s Day, like the film which inspired us, is an exploration of Irish socio-cultural identity,” said Jon Hozier-Byrne, Cogs & Marvel’s Creative Director. “For one day a year, political and historical baggage is cast aside, leaving only bright green hats and drinking. We wanted to apply the same kind of dramatic over-simplification to such rich cultural material.”

And that over-simplification leads to a strangely addictive game, one that manages to make Colm the sympathetic hero.