Whodunit!?

Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle is a quirky little game that makes use of absurd language and silly story telling. The game itself, developed my Relentless Software from the UK, is a six part adventure about a detective from the Blue Toad Detective Agency. The game’s story includes murder, theft, and the most irrelevant mini games found in a game this generation. The gameplay does a good job of being totally separate from the story you are supposed to unravel.

The game starts off with two choices: how many players (between one and four) and which detective you will choose to embody. After the decision is made, the game begins by introducing “Little Riddle” where all the action happens. You get off the train, hoping for some rest and relaxation, when minutes later a character is killed! As a detective, you must figure out who the murderer is and bring justice to the poor victim.

With a very animated narrator, you begin your adventure in “Little Riddle.” There are many characters, all derived from UK-esque stereotypes. In fact, the humor and novelty of the entire game is centered around British influence. American gamers may miss out on the appeal due to this. I personally enjoyed the attitude of the game, but I believe the majority of America will not receive this title all that well.
The gameplay, however, is less than exciting. Between conversation sequences are mini games that usually involve helping people to get information out of them. These mini games can consist of: counting, adding, listening to an old woman ramble, fixing documents, and others. Each mini game, however, has absolutely no incentive to finish correctly. After the mini game, if answered correctly, players will receive either gold, silver, or bronze badge depending on how long they took to answer and how many times they messed up. However, if the players fail one, they can give up, receive the correct answer, and move on to the rest of the conversation. The only reason to actually answer correctly is for trophies, which is not enough persuasion needed in a game like this. The game essentially says “We know these pointless mini games are not very fun, so go ahead and skip em.”

Each chapter has a set amount of these mini games, so the players know exactly how far they are and how many more mini games they have to play before they finish the episode. This is both a blessing and a silly move on the developer’s part. A blessing in that players know how many more mini games they must suffer through till they find out what happens at the end of the episode. However, this really should not be in the game. It further advances the lack of incentive to play by essentially showing where the end of the game will happen.

My personal experience with the Blue Toad Murder Files was a decent one. I had fun listening to the ridiculous commentary with the funny British accept, but aside from that the game was a task to play through. The mini games truly felt tacked on, to the point of being unnecessary. If that portion of the game was improved, and the episode length was not as short as it is, the game would be a much more enjoyable title. I found the humor hilarious, with a good separation of formal narrative and double entendres. The dialogue helped create the atmosphere that players were actually solving a mystery despite it being a relatively light hearted game. One of my favorite examples of this is when the narrator says the word murder. He extenuates the word into about seven syllables and makes it sound like the vilest action imaginable. In that respect, the game did very well. The music was very fitting for the setting of the game, and the visuals were very interesting. It seemed as if the art direction was to make every character a characacher of some one else. Large noses, massive heads, small eyes, everything was for the sake of humor. This coupled with the games funny dialogue makes for a very zany game.

Being that this game is a download only title, renting is not an option. As of right now, the game is currently $15 for the first three episodes, which is a little over priced for around two hours of game time. When all six episodes are available in the US, and are bundled together for $15, then I would say it is reasonably priced. But for now, gamers should put this on their waiting list. The enjoyment to be had, if you are the kind of gamer that would have fun with this, is not worth the amount of content with the current price.