Early on I got stuck at the police station, but once I realized you don't have to do the tasks in order it started going a lot more smoothly. I think it's a really good effort for a single dev. One thing I was impressed with is the sound effects, usually they are minimal or forgettable in a small title like this, but here they do a good job of immersion with the background noise.

I did have some minor gripes. This is something that I agree with Dave Gilbert about, but I am really tired of super obvious Monkey Island references in adventure games. Devs really need to get past that. Secondly, the plot became a little confusing especially at the half way point where it changes pretty abruptly. However, the gameplay improves in the second half when the game opens up with more locations and longer puzzle chains

In summary, the high points are certainly the art and sound design and the puzzle chains for the middle section. In the end I don't think I really understood the plot that well and probably picked the bad ending. So that's kind of my main complaint.
7/10

The Rewinder is a point-and-click adventure game set based on mythological China. In the game you play as Yun who can explore people's memories to alter the past. First off, the setting is pretty unique, the closest comparison I can compare to is Detective Di which was set in ancient China. The gameplay here though was the big selling point for me. I love when point-and-click adventure games go beyond simple combine items and talk to people puzzles. Here there are lots of logic puzzles that are really well integrated with the story. On top of that there is also the memory manipulation mechanic which involves trying to change people's mind to alter the past. I found solving these puzzles really satisfying and payed through the whole game without looking up anything other than the default orientation for a magic square. There are a few quick time puzzles I didn't enjoy, but weren't too difficult.

I wasn't really blown away by the plot or the characters and the game reuses the same scenes for different puzzles so you don't get to go on a big adventure. I know these are things that most people prioritize with these kind of games, but I recommend it based on the puzzles alone. 4/5

In Lake you play as a mail carrier Meredith taking a break from her computer job in the big city to deliver mail in her rural Oregon hometown for a couple of weeks in September 1986. The good parts of the game include the scenery and music. If you love the PNW setting of games like Life is Strange then you will feel at home here. The licensed music was also well chosen, I just wish there was more of a selection. For a game about delivering mail, it doesn't really have much mechanics around that. There's no timer and you don't have to worry about things like gas or damage to the vehicle and there are no dogs to avoid. It's mostly a matter of going to a location on the map, and going up to the door or mailbox and clicking A. In some ways it was nice that it was low stress, but the van wasn't that fun to control, so the driving part was not really that engaging.

The main focus of the game is primarily around Meredith's relationships with the people in the town and here it fares a little better. Some of the characters were fun like Kay and the cat lady, I just wish it didn't force relationships on you. In my mind I was playing as a person looking for a vacation, but the game really tries to push you to pick a character to settle down with and stay in the town, which didn't make sense to me. I was especially put off from having to deliver mail six days a week. It must be something about Americans being overworked, but I'm not going to take a job that makes me work weekends if I can avoid it.

All in all it was enjoyable, but didn't live up to the probably unreasonable expectations I had set. If you are interested in playing it I would wait since the version I played had a lot of glitches. 3.5/5

This is a traditional AGS adventure game about an adventurer Pedro who has to save a princess. The novel feature of the game is that it is completely voiced in beginner Spanish and is designed to be a tool to help you learn Spanish. It's quite a lengthy game at over 8 hours and I have to say that I'm quite impressed with the implementation. Despite knowing no Spanish before starting the game I have been able to proceed in the game with very few issues. I would say the puzzles would definitely be on the easy side for someone with a lot of Spanish knowledge, but it's a lot of fun trying to use logic and my knowledge of French to try to guess what is going on and what to do. I have got stuck a couple times and have had to look up the translation a few times too, but otherwise it's pretty straightforward if you're used to playing point and click adventure games.

As you can see from the screenshots, the pixel artwork is really nice and it is very polished for an AGS game with some nice animations. The only real drawback is the implementation of the hunger and thirst system where you have a hunger and thirst bar that regularly needs replenishing. Water and food are easy to find, but sometimes that results in a lot of backtracking and fast travel isn't available until over halfway through the game. Other than that even though the plot is pretty basic, it's definitely in the running for my adventure game of the year. Highly recommended. 4.5/5

Inspector Waffles is point and click detective game with pixelated graphics in the style of The Darkside Detective where you play as an anthropomorphic cat trying to solve a murder.

In terms of gameplay it's pretty standard point and click, with the puzzles definitely on the easy side. There is a hint system where you call your mom who is a retired detective for help that I used a couple times, but the puzzle difficulty level is never illogical.

The strong point of this game is the characters and humor. It's filled with lots of amusing jokes about the nature of dogs and cats and the relationship between Inspector Waffles the cat and the police dog Sparky is really sweet. Even though it's about a murder it's still pretty lighthearted, but it's not completely cartoony since there is some emotional depth to the characters with real issues.

The plot wasn't anything overly spectacular, but the game is worth playing purely on the strength of the characters and that the puzzles are at a good difficulty level. 8/10

Overboard! is a reverse murder mystery narrative game from Inkle studios the creators of 80 days where the goal is to get away with the murder of your husband. I saw a lot of high praise for this when it released including a 5 star review on adventure gamers so I thought I should at least check it out. I do think the concept is neat with having to replay the story learning things from your different playthroughs to help you reach the end of the trip without getting caught.


Each playthrough is pretty quick with the option to skip dialogue you've seen before so experimentation is not punished too much. There are quite a few different outcomes, but after I'd reached the end without getting caught I didn't feel very compelled to try to get see all the different endings. I'm not sure why I didn't enjoy this game as much as everyone else. I guess I just wasn't that interested in the characters. 3.5/5

Those of you looking for the type of creative art game experience only itch.io can offer might enjoy this one.

You play as a little hand drawn character exploring a kind of art gallery looking for 10 postcards. The game starts off in a kind of 2D hand-drawn plane where there is no real collision detection with the world and you can even move faster than the screen so you can position your character off-screen if you're not careful.


The jankiness can make it difficult to grasp what to do at first, but as you explore the hotels the perspective changes to a third-person where you're flying on a duck to traveling underwater, to first person navigating a maze, back to 2D where you control a claymation eye. The visual aesthetic is all over the place, but somehow consistent.


It can be somewhat confusing trying to navigate the art gallery trying to find all the postcards, I think I only found 8 before reaching the credits, but its relatively short length makes it worth experiencing. 3.5/5