What’s the Deal With: Bendy and the Ink Machine (Spooky October Spectacular)

Evan Tucker, Reporter|October 29, 2018

Bendy and the Ink Machine was a strange game made by Joey Drew Studios Inc. and TheMeatly. If you are unaware, it goes by different names such as: “The Scary Cuphead”, “3d Cuphead”, “The Original Cuphead” and my favorite “Mickey Mouse but my Mom Won’t Let Me Watch It.” It’s a game that takes 3d graphics and combines them with old cartoon styles that only the 1930’s could provide. They combine this eerie style with the horror game genre, then it’s popularity boosted. It became so popular at one point in fact, that it was one of the top horror games. But where is it now? What happened to it? What’s the deal with Bendy and the Ink Machine?

Image result for bendy and the ink machine

It all started on the gloomy day of Feb. 10, 2017. A game that TheMeatly was messing around with and Joey Drew Studios Inc. decided to fix up was finally released. It was a 3d horror game that was inspired off of the old 1930 cartoon graphics. It involved you, Henry, an old animator coming back to his old studio 30 years later. He gets calls from his friend telling him what to do and turns on a machine that makes inky creatures based off of characters from Henry’s old cartoon. Also, his friend is a cultist that conducts rituals on cartoon characters. He seems fun to talk to at parties. Anyway for the rest of the game stuff happens and people die and not die. Also Inky Bendy is there.

So chapter two ends off with a cultist being defeated by Boris and him taking you to a safe house. He explores the studios with you and you both meet Alice and she wants to kill Boris to use his body parts to make her badly rendered humanoid body parts prettier. So you do stuff for her and then she takes Boris and she makes him a war machine and you fight in a “Disney’s Haunted Mansion” like-ride. He dies and not inky Alice stabs inky Alice and chapter five will most likely include a battle with inky bendy. Also, there’s a cool guy named the projectionist. That’s the story so far.

Image result for bendy and the ink machine — The fandom is great

So why did Bendy become one of the most iconic horror villains in modern gaming? Some may like it for the creative art style, but when I look up “Bendy and the Ink Machine” the main reason for popularity becomes clear to me: Build our Machine. An electric swing song made by DAGames and is… Well, I really really really really really don’t like it. I’m sorry, but it never stuck with me. What fuels my decision more is girls dancing and Talking Ben singing to this awful song. It brings chills down my spine to listen to how much work and dedication people put into these but with such a weak payoff. Except for the Talking Ben one. That was cheap. The video has a total of 85,512,443 views and I have a feeling most viewers are in elementary school.

Another big reason for the popularity is likely the crossovers. Because Bendy is in the old art style, people start to draw fanart of Bendy with Mickey Mouse, or more abundantly Cuphead. Oh my gosh, the amount people want Cuphead and Bendy to be a couple is insane. Because Cuphead and Bendy and the Ink Machine are both games based on the same type of art style, fans of the two games think it’s an acceptable excuse for them to fall in love. Perhaps the strangest part is the fact that they redesigned both characters in most fanart that I’ve seen, including Cuphead to have a nice set of… Coffee hair? Bendy fanart supplies him with aviator goggles for some reason. I can’t complain, they do look good on him.

This is my favorite image ever of a six-year-old having a Bendy birthday party at Chucky Cheese

I think the biggest reason that Bendy and the Ink Machine is getting so much popularity is the young audience. Kids everywhere are obsessing over the approachable yet dark main character combining with Steve from Minecraft, or Annoying Orange. I feel bad for Joey Drew Studios because most of their viewers are at their game for Bendy Legos or Bendy with trap music or whatever. I feel like it’s safe to agree that most of the fanbase nowadays are younger children.

Honestly, I don’t hate Bendy and the Ink Machine. I would say it’s okay at most. Yet honestly, I like the 2d artwork, even if the 3d models don’t look the best. I highly respect TheMeatly for working on chapter three with bronchitis and six hours of sleep each night. I like the idea and the story isn’t terrible… Yet. Bendy and the Ink Machine is unique, and I respect that as a fact. But I needed to ask myself… What’s the deal with Bendy and the Ink Machine?

Chapters

Here’s a little review on the chapters, in case you want to hear my opinion. Chapter one is a little messy. The only real “scary” part of the chapter is that one really bad jumpscare by Inky Bendy. That’s about it for chapter one. It sets a clear mood, but I wouldn’t call this chapter horror. Chapter two is okay, but it removes some horror by giving the player an ax. Why do this? This isn’t an action game. Chapter three is just fine, being the longest and most storyline driven than the rest. The only good part was the projectionist. Chapter four is okay in the scenery, but overall it feels weak. I can’t wait for chapter five to see if it improves!

Also, photo credit for dabbing bendy goes to Bonnet Animations. Out of all problems we have right now, we can trust you for dabbing Bendy pictures.