Classic time: "The Adventures of Willy Beamish" playthrough!

New game!

I've started replaying The Adventures of Willy Beamish and I'm 1 hour into it!

The game is like a cartoon version of an early '90s John Hughes/Chris Columbus movie. I played this for the first time as a teenager, aged somewhere between Willy himself and his older sister Tiffany. I only ever finished this game once, but I started replaying it several times, always up to the point where I got hopelessly stuck. I enjoyed the fun and cozy atmosphere of the game, the "real world" setting (I will always prefer that over fantasy or sci-fi settings), and Willy's voice actor, Michael Zibelman.

Not your average breakfast club...

It's the last day of school before summer vacation, and Willy finds himself in detention. First job is to get home early and intercept a bad report card. Your cursor changes into a big red arrow when there's something to do. You can pick up items, use them somewhere else, combine them... Typical inventory puzzle style. It took me a while to realize, but clicking the other mouse button changes the cursor into a magnifying glass, and when it becomes transparant a narrator will give a description of whatever you're looking it. But that doesn't mean that object is a hotspot that can be manipulated. Actual hotspots are limited, but each screen is loaded with background items you can examine.

I was so jealous of Willy's house...

Willy's house might not look like much compared to today's standards, but when I was young, I really wanted to live there myself! I loved the fact that you can move from room to room in a circle and wind up back where you started. There's not only the house to explore, but also part of the city. The main story of the game is that Willy wants to enter the Nintari Championship, but he needs a whole lot of money for the participation fee. When his dad comes home that evening and says he's been fired from his job, Willy have to look for different means to finance his big dream.

Frighteningly similar to what my own son's room looks like...

During this first hour, I played through the first day and up till the next morning, when Willy meets up with his two friends Dana and Perry in a nearby treehouse. At the breakfast table, dad got himself an interview at the local Tootsweet company, but an ominous cutscene showing the Tootsweet management in a hot tub doesn't promise anything good. There seems to be some kind of conspiracy afoot that will disrupt life in the city of Frumpton...

I never had a treehouse when I was young :(