Around halfway through one of the greatest episodes of television of all time—Frasier season 1’s “My Coffee With Niles”—our hero asks his brother if he truly loves his wife, Maris. “Of course I love her,” replies Niles, “but it’s a different kind of love… Maris and I are old friends. We can spend an afternoon together—me at my jigsaw puzzle, she at her auto-harp—not a word spoken between us and be perfectly content”.
This is, coincidentally, my relationship to the original Frasier TV series itself. It’s not something I scream and rave about, constantly recommending to friends, but it’s been a familiar and grounding presence in my life since I was a child. Something I stick on in stressful times to keep myself from going mad. Nothing really bad can happen while an episode of Frasier is on.
Anyway, all this is to say that Frasier Fantasy (spotted by RPS), a mashup of Frasier and the old Final Fantasy games that you can play for free in your browser, is tailor-made for me specifically, and it’s a much better way to return to the Crane boys’ adventures than the series’ recent tired return on Paramount.
Created by developer Edward La Barbera and playable, should you be appropriately snobby about these things, on an Analogue Pocket or actual Game Boy Colour, Frasier Fantasy is a genuinely brilliant best hits compilation of Frasier characters and events that sees you attempt to throw an inevitably disastrous party for the Seattle haut monde at Dr Crane’s apartment.
Along the way you’ll have to recover some fancy cutlery from Niles and his wife, record an episode of Frasier’s radio show, and find some way to get Martin and Eddie (his dog) out of your apartment. Also, you fight bats in single combat at one point, which maybe was a season 10 thing.
It’s great, and you will spend the entire time doing the “Leo DiCaprio pointing” thing if you’re even remotely as Frasier-pilled as I am. Anyway, let’s froove.
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