Editor’s Note: This piece includes mild spoilers for “Lost Records: Bloom & Rage.”

When the world is uncertain and scary, it’s natural to retreat to an idealized past. Since the 2024 election results started rolling in, I’ve definitely been guilty of finding comfort in ’90s cartoons like “KaBlam” and “Angry Beavers,” but that doesn’t mean I’m sticking my head in the sand.

Don’t Nod, the studio who gave us “Life is Strange,” has created a brand new teen drama called “Lost Records: Bloom & Rage” set on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the mid-’90s. And if you happened to have lived through that time period like I did, it’s going to hit you like a Mack truck.

While “Lost Records” has a framing narrative that takes place in the modern day with the protagonists all grown up, the vast majority of the game takes place during flashbacks to their teen years.

You play as Swann — a dorky ginger who records everything on her video camera, loves cats, and has a “goblin corner” in her bedroom. Joining her are her friends Nora, Autumn, and Kat.

These punk ass teens form a band, take over an abandoned cottage in the woods, and deliver an intoxicating mixture of wholesome teen relationships and outright fury at the people in their shitty small town.

From the fashion to the VHS fuzz to the landline shenanigans, much of the initial appeal comes from evoking a time that is perceived as simpler and less miserable by people of a certain age, but “Lost Records” refuses to let the pleasant warmth of nostalgia go without a reality check.

The main cast is diverse in a time when diversity was somehow even more vilified than it is now. Numerous characters are queer, Autumn is black in a very white area, Swann struggles with her weight, and one character has a disability. The game doesn’t shy away from depicting how difficult it can be to simply exist under those conditions.

While there are many moments of carefree joy and teenage rebellion, the oppressive atmosphere of judgemental parents, homophobic townies, and some good ol’ boy bullshit makes it crystal clear that retreating to nostalgia won’t actually help beyond momentary distraction.

Things were bad back then too, and we cannot let our clouded childhood memories trick us into believing that looking backward will save us. Even as we suffer in the moment, the only way to a better world is by looking straight ahead.

“Lost Records: Bloom & Rage” is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S for $39.99.

Image Credit: “Lost Records: Bloom & Rage,” Don’t Nod