Final thoughts

[dr_st]

#11138

Second game in a row for which I’m making the ‘Final Thoughts’ topic. Seems like everyone just posted their final thoughts in the ‘First impressions’ thread. 😛

This is a game that I haven’t even intended to play, but Christopher Lloyd and the rest of the excellent voice cast were luring me in. Pix’s remark in the ‘First impressions’ thread that it’s not overly long was the final push to convince me to give it a serious shot.

I knew that I would have no time to play it through most of the month, and so would probably only finish it after it went to the ‘Previous months’ forum, which is exactly what happened, but so what?

I do enjoy graphic adventures, just feel I suck at them. But, damnit, I can get better, can’t I? So not only I decided I will play this, I’ve resolved to not using any hints in my playthrough. Even stayed away from the forums. And I succeeded! I think this is the first point-n-click puzzle adventure game (I’ve played fewer than 10 of these in my lifetime) that I’ve completed without any hints from friends or the internet.

Indeed the game is not very long, but longer than I felt it would be. I understand that the content which was cut would have made it longer (at some point they contemplated a sequel with the cut content, but it never materialized).

All in all – an excellent game, in my opinion. Totally in the league of the famous LucasArts titles in terms of style, humor, presentation and puzzle implementation. A good mixture of different types of puzzles, and nothing that felt too crazy. There were a couple of places where I got stuck longer than necessary (more on it below), and some other places where I figured out the strange solution half-accidentally before the game had a chance to stump me.

There were, however, quite a few puzzles which had an unexpected second layer, and at times it was a bit annoying. Like – from talking to some character you understand which object you need and where you need to take it, you take it there, only to find out that you cannot execute this action yet, because something else suddenly blocks you, and you need to solve another puzzle. Maybe it’s normal for point-n-click adventures, and I am just out-of-touch.

The usage of icons to choose dialog options (e.g., breaking the ice for the initial conversation with characters) seemed very fitting to the cartoon world. The characters are silly, some of the humor is silly / “adult”, but not over the top.

In terms of audio and visuals – there is absolutely nothing to complain about.

I wish I had found out sooner that right-clicking the exit to the next area transports you there instantaneously, cutting all the walk animation.

Now for some specifics

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The main goal of part 1 (assembling the cutifier pieces by referring to well-known English idioms) was surprisingly easy to figure out. As soon as I saw “sugar and spice” I immediately understood what kind of objects I will need, and 9 or so of them were obvious. For a couple it took a bit more tries. For instance, Originally I thought the idiom would be “between a rock and a hard place”, but since I never got any anvils or other ‘hard places’ in my inventory, and I did, eventually, get a roll, it became clear.

With how quickly I was accumulating these items, I thought the game might be too short, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover there is an entire second part taking place in the castle.

For the library bookshelf puzzle and the clown door ‘repeat the sequence’ puzzle I just wrote things down. Didn’t feel like really trying to memorize / do too much trial and error.

To solve the phone puzzle / game of fifteen puzzle I took pictures with my phone. Is that cheating? 😉

All in all – I was stuck three times. Twice it was due to “pixel hunting”, which wouldn’t be a problem if the game had implemented a “hot spot” highlight button like some games did: I had missed the feather on the dead vulture, and I had missed the horn on the left gargoyle statue.

The third thing was the lullaby puzzle (using the music box to put the gator in the surveillance room to sleep). In retrospect, I don’t know why it took me so long – the game gives you ample hints (he’s barely conscious, he is not asleep _yet_) to point you in the right direction.

The “advantage” of spending some time stuck on a particular puzzle, is that by the time you solve it, you are likely to have accumulated almost all of the other puzzle pieces, and can breeze through the next few sections with ease.

A couple of times I let the goons catch me to put me in jail, even though I knew how to avoid them. Just wanted to see the extra puzzles, but they are nothing to write home about.

The game of fifteen with the picture is probably the most annoying one, but it is optional. You don’t _really_ need the portable hole, and you can avoid getting caught.

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[jan0sch]

#11141

Awesome, congratulations! =)

[Evil Taco]

#11144

Nice write up! I resorted to some hints as I wanted to get the game finished in a short amount of calendar time but it’s also really fun to solve it all yourself; I _almost_ did that with Grim Fandango playing with my fiancee and it took seven years and still a couple of hints I had to look up!

I got stuck on exactly those two pixel hunting spots you mentioned. I got naturally caught by the goonies exactly once and I could’ve sworn it was mandatory and 100% scripted.

Nothing wrong with paper and pen, that’s what I used for the telephone puzzle and I enjoyed it. Taking pictures with the mobile phone is absolutely not cheating either, memory tests these games need not be!