Radiohead’s Kid A Mnesia exhibit is quite an odd creature. The project pays homage to two of the band’s most famous works (Kid A and Amnesia), which have just turned 21 and 20 years old respectively. Originally, Kid A Mnesia Exhibition was intended to be a physical installation, but later the perspective changed towards the digital world due to the Covid-19 pandemic. What we have in front of us is not a normal game, but an interactive experience that adds an extra visual dimension to these well-known albums.
If you were to compare Kid A Mnesia Exhibition to any other game out there, I’d probably put it in the same category as Gone Home and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Here you will have to go through several different psychotropic scenes where the music that is accompanying you changes over time. For example, in one of the rooms there was a hand-drawn wall that flickered violently around me to mimic the pitch changes of the music. In another, I was staring at a moving image of the mountain range on the Kid A cover as the sound of the violins fell silent at the end of the motion picture soundtrack.
The music is absolutely flawless and includes hits from the two albums mentioned as well as several previously unreleased songs. I really liked seeing the more serious songs like “The National Anthem” and “In Limbo” had their prominent moments, as well as more obvious ones like “Pyramid Song” and “How to Disappear Completely”. These songs don’t sound complete either, but parts of them have been selected to be able to mix them together. I got goosebumps right from the start when Kid A’s first song “Everything In Its Right Place” was wonderfully intertwined with the last moments of the album’s title track. As a Radiohead fan, it’s a pleasure to hear the simplified and revised versions in various new ways two decades later.
It can be deduced from th is that my general opinion is thoroughly positive, but that does not mean that Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is flawless. Strong, flashing lights and fast scrolling graphics can be quite intense and are recommended for epilepsy patients to avoid. Also, the game is quite short as it can be completed in an hour. I can understand that this is a topic of discussion for fans because on the one hand there is no filling content, but on the other hand you can see everything in the game when you play it.
Also, I kept falling off the map, forcing me to restart the game. At some point I got lost and fell off the stage with no way of coming back after falling into the dark. Having to restart the game was frustrating, but its short duration meant you never lost much of your progress. I should also say here that the game is free for both PC and PS5, so I can’t be too critical of glitches in general either.
After playing Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, I can’t help but wonder why other artists haven’t used this medium. The experience, even if brief, adds an extra dimension of trance to the songs we love so much, and the ones included have some wonderful remixes. While I would wholeheartedly recommend this game to Radiohead fans (who have already made Anima for Netflix), I wouldn’t say that everyone would enjoy it. There isn’t much to do when it comes to the gameplay other than soaking up the amazing music and drawings, and the constantly blinking lights can saturate the senses.
