September 9, 2009
Is there a switch that needs flipping?
So I’ve got Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. It looks so great! I’ve played some of it, and it’s so good! So what do I do?
Why, I buy a completely different pair of Indie games and play those instead, of course. Why would I want to play the awesome retail release I just bought? How silly.
But no, seriously, it’s okay, because these games are great. Best yet, the first one is free, though I got it in a little two pack for the cost of the second one on Steam. It is called Ben There, Dan That! and it is great and you should try it.
The game is a click-’em-up adventure, as Strong Bad would say. It’s obviously made by a low budget team, but they do their best! They don’t have voice work, which is a real shame, and the graphics look a little janky. But at the same time, they’ve managed to cobble their strange art into a very distinct visual style, which is always a plus, and even though I don’t get to hear someone reading it, the writing is pretty damn awesome. I laughed quite a few times.
The story is oddly selfish in its design. The characters in the game are actually supposed to be the two guys making it, completely. There are jokes about how lazy the programming is, and how hard it is to write a good joke here, but eh, they’ll put one in later, and so on. I’m sure this started out as a silly kind of joke project for the guys who made it. Still, it’s hard not to like it, even with some of the blatant fan service to themselves, because it is so well-written and entertaining. The majority of the puzzles are pretty straightforward and understandable, and the nonsensical ones are wrapped up in such entertaining jokes that you really don’t care all that much.
Of course, the best part is, it’s free. It’s worth the day or so it takes to play through it, totally. Download it, try it, and if you like combining items with other items, the mark of any TRUE adventurer, you will enjoy it. Promise. And then you’ll likely drop the five bucks on the sequel. And enjoy that. But I’ll talk about that tomorrow. Probably.