Finished "Willy Beamish" in 5 aggravating hours...

I should have received a real cup, finishing this game...

I finished The Adventures of Willy Beamish in five aggravating hours. Don't get me wrong, I like the little guy. But what a game! If this was made today, it might still contain death scenes but I'm sure you would automatically respawn to try again. The final sequence of the game has some timed sequences where it's a matter of clicking fast and correctly. I do appreciate that sense of urgency and danger, but manually saving and restoring every step of the way isn't of our time anymore.

Why exactly did I need to go into this Buttcrack Bar?

So, after escaping from the Humpford mansion, I learn that my dad has been kidnapped and I need to hurry and save him. So I need to find a way into the Sludgeworks. Only, the strikers are blocking the entrance. It took me quite a while to figure out where to go and what to do. Thankfully there were limited possibilities this time, but I still had to look for some outside assistance for this puzzle. And even now I have no idea how you were supposed to figure it out without some inside knowledge.

Looks like my cooking pot when I try to make chocolate mousse...

So I finally found my way inside the factory, only to be confronted with a series of timed action sequences. I had to save in every room I entered, and had to reload every one of them at least five times. Perhaps it's because my previous playthrough had been a while that I couldn't figure out what to do with all the control panels I encountered. Turned out I had all the answers in my inventory...

Not exactly LeChuck's fortress, but still quite impressive...

All in all, I'm glad I played through this game again, but I wouldn't exactly call it fun. The first half is definitely okay. It's easy going, quite cozy even, with obvious things to do. The second half is a lot of work, with trial and error, saving and restoring, quite non-intuitive puzzles even. But it's a decent enough story, quite the adventure that really fits in with all those animated movies I used to watch as a kid (and sometimes still do...) If it had been a bit more forgiving, I'd recommend it more, but as it is I'd only play it if you're really looking for a challenge.

"Just a To the Moon Series Beach Episode", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot!

Excerpt: "A series’ “beach episode” is generally just a whimsical aside where familiar and favorite fictional characters leave their comfort zones to engage in far different activities than their everyday routines, literally by going swimming, surfing and playing tourist. Just a To the Moon Series Beach Episode might start off like that, but it soon adds other elements to keep you on your toes: there is more going on here, but the question is, will you find out exactly what? In my view, this elevates the game above a simple yet fun diversion. It is still fun, as the mini-games and some free choices ensure, but the overarching storyline for these characters takes a huge turn as well, making it an important addition to the series. We don’t yet know where this particular story will end, since there is still one more episode to come, but for series fans this is a wonderful day out with the SigCorp team and dramatically sets the stage for what lies ahead."

"Arsene Lupin - Once a Thief", my Adventure Game Hotspot review

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot.

Excerpt: "Although I expected to play only as Arsène Lupin himself, the playful way in which the narrative’s chronology is broken up between Lupin carrying out his heists and Ganimard trying to figure out how he does them is very fun. Some of the puzzles are fairly straightforward and overly forgiving, with unlimited tries and no repercussions when you do something wrong, but the more traditional investigative puzzling is rewarding to solve, and whenever I succeeded in linking evidence correctly, I felt as if I was donning a black cloak and top hat of my own in plotting my latest heist. The music is great, the isometric scenes fun to rotate and explore, and the supporting cast just begs to be fooled by Lupin. Since I’ve read some of the Leblanc books, I recognized some plot elements here and there, like how Lupin escapes his unavoidable arrest, but it’s certainly not necessary to know anything about the character going in. Just like his more famous British and Belgian contemporaries, Lupin is a character straight out of literary fiction who was long overdue a lead role, and I’m sure he will charm his way into the hearts of those who aren’t already familiar with his antics as well."

4 hours into "Willy Beamish" and I ran out of save files...

Yeah, I get it, it's the west side of town...

I'm 4 hours into The Adventures of Willy Beamish and I still can't grasp what happened. The game changed from a cozy, "play as a ten year old"-simulator into a "death around every corner" trial-and-error debacle, up to the point where it's just not fun anymore. I can totally remember now why I never finished this game more than once back in the day... After procuring myself a registration form for the frog jump, I got stuck on the other side of the river because I couldn't get back on the ferry. I explored some without really finding anything, until suddenly a gang showed up and, well, ganged up on me for some reason. Took me a while to figure out how to escape from them...

Jump, Horny, jump!

Then back home it was immediately on to day four and the big event! The frog jump took me several tries as well before Horny was victorious. But it's what happens next that really made me run through all my save slots. Looking for Horny after the competition, I get caught by a security guard. I lost count of the number of times I had to restore, but this sequence is a timed event and you only have precious seconds to perform just the right actions so you can escape.

Turns out the solution to this is found in the game's manual...

Next, I learned that the big villain of the story, Leona Humpford, has taken all the frogs to their mansion for dinner. Well, not to serve them dinner, they ARE dinner. So of course I need to rescue them. I think this mansion alone took me an hour of gaming, with a talking parrot first giving away my presence, then Leona herself and her henchman Louis, and of course the knife-throwing chef in the kitchen catching me time and time again. Once again, there's a set series of actions you have to perform to get past this sequence. Do one thing wrong, and it's game-over. I kept saving (over older save files by now) every step I took. And when I finally succeeded, I didn't believe it and I restored again thinking I still did something wrong, because the final cutscene starts in exactly the same way many of the game-over scenes do, with Willy getting caught by Leona and Louis and thrown into an aquarium as a new treasure ornament.

Still don't know what's so appealing about frog legs...

So finally I escaped the mansion with all the frogs - or, well, they escaped with me, I should say... Now I'm back on the west side of town where I'm supposed to save my dad, but I have absolutely no idea how to go about that, and if the gameplay is anything like the last two hours, I'm sure to be busy for at least another two!

"PRIM", my Adventure Game Hotspot review

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot!

Excerpt: "While it does have a few creative tricks up its sleeve, PRIM is very much a traditional adventure game that takes what its classic predecessors did well and updates it for modern audiences. The result is a highly polished, entertaining new coming-of-age story about a wonky father-daughter relationship that will make you laugh and maybe even cry, offering plenty of fun but also connecting on an emotional level. PRIM does a masterful job of combining its serious themes with the right amount of humor, and everything about its production, from the artwork and interface to the music and voice-overs, screams excellence, an eye for detail, and a true love for both adventure gaming and storytelling. That would be impressive for any developer, let alone a small team making their very first game. I most enjoy playing games like this, but rarely are they done as well as it is here. Leave it to a game set in the Realm of the Dead to show that there’s still lots of life left in the point-and-click adventure genre." 

"Murder on Space Station 52", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

 

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot!

Excerpt: "Sci-fi games usually aren’t my cup of tea, but Murder on Space Station 52 is a mystery game first and science fiction game second, so it doesn’t bombard you with loads of alien lore or technical/scientific stuff. As such, it succeeded in not only holding my interest, but actually making it a lot of fun. Despite its extraterrestrial setting, it’s a pretty straightforward, well-acted detective-style point-and-click investigation combining fetch quests and problem solving and information gathering through examination of hotspots and talking to possible suspects. Most of the puzzles are quite easy, and the logic needed to be applied is pretty much common sense, albeit with a couple of blatant exceptions. It’s too bad there isn’t more actual detective work involved in ultimately pinpointing the murderer in the bunch, but it nevertheless succeeded in making a non-sci-fi gamer like me boldly go where I never really liked to go before."

2 hours into "Willy Beamish" and I caused an explosion and fought off a demon bat!

Hard to "just walk away" when you can't touch ground...

Two hours into Willy Beamish and I took the ferry to grab myself a registration form for the frog jumping contest! The big plan is to win this contest, then use THAT prize money to register for the Nintari championships. But seriously, who in their right mind would enter a competition that demands a $2,500 participation fee? You just HAVE to be a ten year old cartoon character from a video game, right?

Well that was unexpected...

I spent day two hanging out with my buddies Dana and Perry. We went and had an explosive meal at the local pizza joint, then practiced in the park for the frog jumping contest. Horny is a bit like his name when Dana's pet frog is around, jumping much farther. We'll just have to figure out how the make the opponent jump LESS far... Back home, my parents had a surprise in the form of a babysitter from hell. I had a lot of trouble with this sequence when I was young, and now I died several times as well before I vanquished her.

To infinity...

Besides the main storyline, there are also optional things to do that might influence your "trouble meter". This thermometer-type gauge pops up whenever you do a good thing (like picking up your little sister after she fell out of her bed) or a bad thing (crashing your dad's miniature trains). If you do too many bad things, your parents will send you to military school and then it's game over. Doing an extremely bad thing (like launching your little sister from her swing set) will lead to an immediate deportment.

Ooh, area unlocked!

Day three finds me on the other side of the river to get myself an entry form. I met a sweet Japanese family on the ferry, which was pretty random. But I remember from my youth I'll see them again somewhere...