Teenagent is as much a spy game as it is a Saturday morning cartoon aimed at young kids to teens. And like said shows it can oscillate between being fun and engaging one episode (figuratively) and completely silly, trivial and nonsensical the next. The games story centers around an interesting hook for a mystery; gold bars are stolen in plain sight with no visible break in or thief. Your mission: catch the culprit's; only problem is you are a regular teenager (think Cody Banks before that film was even conceptualized) thrust into this mystery after the agency was recommended to you by, out of desperation, hiring a psychic. From then on you are trained,rather briskly and in an "trial by fire" method, and sent on your way to solve the caper. The game functions like a typical point and click adventure game. You explore environments learning about and interacting with other characters and objects to solve puzzles that will help you complete your objective. In this regard Teenagent ops for puzzles that can range from clever and amusing (such as some of the training challenges), trivial and amusing (using an item to get around an obstacle only to realize you did not need it) and absolutely ridiculous, nonsensical and nebulous to decipher (the tree near the mansion). This uneven mix of smart and ludicrous puzzles fits like a glove around the game's story and tone, which is mostly focused on comedic scenarios. The comedy in question is the odd and at time's charming mix of bizarre situations thrust upon the main character and writing that sounds like it came straight from an out of touch adult trying their hardest to appease teenagers. All of this culminates into a rather unfortunately brisk but satisfying conclusion to an otherwise flawed but fun adventure/puzzle game. If you are willing to put up with momentary lapses into moon logic and at times somewhat juvenile writing Teenagent, in all its "special agent" silliness lends itself to be a goofy, uneven, but fun oldie.
For the longest of times I was under the impression that I would never play a game that could make me cry. Many others had tried, and while some came close, none succeeded. Until now. The gameplay consists primarily of looking around and finding memories to solve a very simplistic puzzle for getting to new stages. And yet despite this it is the story and characters that keep you intrigued. The entire mystery behind why Johnny wants to go to the moon quickly develops into a fascinating tale of regret, second chances, and why and how people closest to us can have the most impact in our lives. And it helps that while both of the main characters fit certain cliches to an extent, as Eva and Neil begin to learn about Johnny's past we in turn understand them more. And the fact that the game never flat out explains why a few characters have distinct problems with certain subjects ( Eva seems to have a distaste for marriage) it only helps flesh out and compliment them as characters. And when all is said and done, as I experienced the final 10 minutes of this game I could not help but cry from both equal amounts of heart wrenching sadness but also unmeasurable joy. My impressions going into this game that it would make me cry were shot down by my scepticism, until actually experiencing it first hand for myself.
