Posted on: November 19, 2018

Dr.Starky
Verified ownerGames: 11 Reviews: 1
"Try digging it out with fork..."
I was actually totally blindsided how great the dialogue in this game was. There are so many great, layered lines! And the delivery on the part of the voice actors so amazing. I remember when the circus owner informed me that his clothes where actually his "naturally green and vinyl-like" skin in the most cheerful, deadpan voice imaginable and I was absolutely floored. This games humor was really ahead of it's time, so it's kind of disappointing the gameplay hasn't aged very well. The game doesn't really have a "three trials" structure at the beginning to guide you so you kind of just awkwardly poke around without any real direction. It was pretty common for me to put a lot of effort into solving a puzzle only to get something I couldn't use until much later. The cartoon logic puzzles aren't too bad for the genre, but they still tend be more annoying than satisfying. Usually when I was stuck, it was because I missed out on some out of the way item rather than the puzzle being very challenging. Sam will often let you know if your own the right track for some puzzles is a nice touch though, it was big help in the tunnel of love scene. It also doesn't help that the environments generally aren't very exciting to explore. It fits the satirical tone of the game for you to be visiting a bunch of lame tourist traps, but it's little disheartening when your stuck and you have to wander around the World's Largest Ball of Twine or the Celebrity Vegetable Patch to see if there was something you missed. There are some bright spots like the Mystery Vortex though. But despite these flaws, there's still a lot to love about this game and I'm really glad I played it. It's gorgeous and consistently funny throughout. Even if you have little patience for 90s adventure game design, I would at least recommend watching a playthrough on Youtube.
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