Soup cans

Soup cans is a derisive term for a puzzle that makes no sense within the plot of a game. The puzzle's nonsensical nature distracts so much from the plot that it damages the game's sense of mimesis.

The term is named after a sequence in The Seventh Guest (Trilobyte/Virgin, 1993) where the player must spell out a secret message by shuffling cans of soup on a pantry shelf. There is no logical reason for this at all, other than the sense that the mansion the player is exploring has a pantry, and the pantry needed a puzzle of some kind.

The term arose from a comment made by Russ Bryan in the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction: "I mean, what the hell kind of villain thwarts the hero's progress with soup cans in the kitchen pantry (Seventh Guest)?"

Links

• Solve The Soup Cans at TV Tropes Wiki.