Manual Samuel

My brother bought it for me and so I was obligated to beat it at least once.
Played offline, so the playtime isn't correct.
QWOP mixed with The Stanley Parable and a dash of early 2000's 'lol random' humor.
If I played this 20 years ago on Kongregate I would've thought it was the most amazing thing ever.
Worth every penny I spent on it.

This game was the first part of The Complete Tuesday Trilogy and I'm giving it a thumbs up only because it's a big part of the overall story of the trilogy. I'd say this game is only worth it if you're aiming to play Helheim Hassle and The Holy Gosh Darn, but I wouldn't recommend this as a stand-alone game.
It's not a really long game, a playthrough is something like 2 hours, but after about one hour of the Octodad-type fumbling the gameplay just starts to get too stale. I didn't much care for the art style or the jokes or writing either, but it all gets expanded upon in the next two games so it's okay to endure through.
It has some extra options for further playthroughs like speedruns and really tricky achievements, but I wasn't interested in those. This is also the only game in the trilogy to feature local co-op (which seems quite similar to Octodad's shared body controls).

A pretty fun game for a while! It doesn't take long to complete. I would recommend buying on sale.

This games movement is heavily influenced by the viral classic game QUOP. Add in funny dialogue that reminds you of a bad adult film storyline and this is what you get. There's more animation in this game than most Hentai games.

This game is SO annoying but at the same time so fascinating - steering Samuel manually in his daily life. The name of the game is exactly what it is - it takes some time to get used to the steering but after some time it gets less challenging. The story is nice, well made and thought through. The characters make sense and advancing in this game is also easy enough without making it frustrating. Only tested the singleplayer-version though, although it seems to have some co-op mode according to the game's tags. Can't say anythign bad about this game. so simply: recommended as a short filler between other games.

Little did I know, how much I would fall for these absolutely bonkers and quirky games...

Manual Samuel wasn’t just a game for me—it was a wake-up call cleverly disguised as dark comedy. From the moment I was forced to manually control something as simple as breathing or blinking, the absurdity quickly gave way to a humbling realization: everything I do in real life, from walking to speaking, is a privilege of awareness and effort. The frustration of constantly failing Samuel’s most basic tasks mirrored my own struggles with control, routine, and taking life’s small moments for granted. By the end, I began to see how much of my day I lived on autopilot, rushing through without gratitude or mindfulness. The game’s quirkiness hides a profound lesson about mortality and purpose—Death may wear a hoodie and crack jokes, but the message is piercingly human: life is fragile, messy, and worth taking responsibility for. Manual Samuel taught me to embrace imperfection, to laugh at my mistakes, and to stay consciously engaged in even the simplest actions. It reshaped the way I think about mindfulness, accountability, and the fleeting beauty of existing at all. It’s rare for a game to make you laugh while quietly rewriting how you approach life, but Manual Samuel did that for me—and I’ll never see “control” the same way again. (10/10)