Thimbleweed Park Switch Review – Classic Game, Touch Screen Controls

<p>The year is 1987&period; Someone has been murdered in the town of Thimbleweed Park&period; You play as FBI agents Ray and Reyes who have been assigned to the case&period; You must interview the strange inhabitants of the town&comma; explore dark alleys&comma; quite possibly get food poisoning&comma; and find out what&&num;8217&semi;s going on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Thimbleweed Park<&sol;em> is a Kickstarter success created by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick&period; It can be described as a &&num;8220&semi;new classic&&num;8221&semi; point and click adventure game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s the spiritual successor to the pair&&num;8217&semi;s LucasArts games from more than 25 years ago&comma; like <em>Maniac Mansion<&sol;em> and <em>The Secret of Monkey Island<&sol;em>&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll recognize the use of action verbs and the quirky sense of humor&period; As the story progresses&comma; you play as five different characters&colon; Agent Ray&comma; Agent Reyes&comma; Ransome the Clown&comma; Delores&comma; and her father&comma; Franklin&period; The game launched on PC&sol;Mac&sol;Linux in March 2017 but it&&num;8217&semi;s making its Switch debut this week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As we are finding with more and more games&comma; the Switch port is fantastic&period; There really isn&&num;8217&semi;t a better way to play <em>Thimbleweed Park<&sol;em> than with the port&&num;8217&semi;s full touch screen capabilities&period; You tap the screen and hold&period; The game will show all available hotspots&comma; which is a huge help when trying to figure out which objects are interactive&period; You can swipe with two fingers to skip dialog or Swipe with three and you can skip a cutscene&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s fast and easy to select items and dialogue options using the touchscreen&comma; and I stopped using the Switch controls early on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129734" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129734" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129734" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;19185537&sol;main1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Thimbleweed Park&comma; Terrible Toybox" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129734" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Thimbleweed Park&comma; Terrible Toybox<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Thimbleweed Park<&sol;em> includes an easy and a hard mode&period; Because there&&num;8217&semi;s no danger of death&comma; clearly stated by a character breaking the fourth wall at the beginning of the game&comma; these difficulty levels are based only on game duration and puzzle complexity&period; For example&comma; the town&&num;8217&semi;s arcade and the features within are only available in hard mode&period; This mode also adds additional requirements for many objectives&period; Some hard puzzles require the use of money or the memorization of a number that a character might already have access to in the easier difficulty setting&period; Easy mode can take about 7-10 hours to complete and playing at the tougher difficulty adds enough new content to double the play time&period; If you really want to experience the full game that you spent your hard earned money on&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s no reason to play easy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you are too intimidated by tough puzzles to play at the harder setting&comma; never fear&period; A recent update includes an in-game hint system&period; Early on in the game&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll find fliers posted around town advertising this service&period; Use any working phone in <em>Thimbleweed Park&comma; <&sol;em>and you can get a helpful nudge in the right direction&period; The addition of this system feels seamless&comma; as the same phones are required to solve other puzzles in the game&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll find yourself using your phone and phone book to track down important NPCs&comma; so it makes sense that you can use the same system for a little extra assistance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129735" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129735" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129735" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;19185617&sol;main2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Thimbleweed Park&comma; Terrible Toybox" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"539" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129735" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Thimbleweed Park&comma; Terrible Toybox<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><i>Thimbleweed Park <&sol;i>is a throwback to the adventure games we grew up playing&comma; and its meta writing doesn&&num;8217&semi;t let us forget&period; At one point&comma; I tried to pick up a pile of junk and Agent Reyes said&comma; &&num;8220&semi;I don&&num;8217&semi;t have a warrant for adventure game red herrings&period;&&num;8221&semi; Classic point-and-click games are often criticized for including pixel hunting elements&period; Players complain that a false sense of difficulty is created when the solution to a puzzle is a tiny object only a few pixels wide&comma; hidden somewhere in the background&period; <em>Thimbleweed Park&&num;8217&semi;s <&sol;em>response&quest; A game objective that consists of collecting dozens of pixel-sized specs of dust&period; Literal pixel hunting&period; Sometimes&comma; these meta elements felt overdone&comma; but I generally enjoyed them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite its frequent comparison to<em> Twin Peaks<&sol;em> and <em>The X-Files<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Thimbleweed Park<&sol;em> never got dark enough for me&period; I wish they would have taken the noir-esque theme and run with it&period; The main storyline has the potential to get weird &&num;8211&semi; there&&num;8217&semi;s murder&comma; madness&comma; and corruption&period; But it never gets there&period; Secondary characters keep talking about how strange the town has gotten recently&comma; but we don&&num;8217&semi;t get the opportunity to experience much of the strangeness to which they refer&period; There are bits of paranormal activity&comma; but they aren&&num;8217&semi;t spooky&period; The madness doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feels menacing enough&period; The theme never quite gets to where it has the potential of going&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129736" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129736" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129736" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;19185648&sol;main3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Thimbleweed Park&comma; Terrible Toybox" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129736" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Thimbleweed Park&comma; Terrible Toybox<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Part of me wonders if the development team simply ran out of time to flesh out the game as much as they wanted&period; This can be a significant problem with KickStarter projects&comma; as turnaround time is important when the money of dedicated fans is on the line&period; One of the latest updates allows you to have conversations between playable characters&comma; something that should have been there since the beginning&period; It helps to make the cooperation between characters feel more cohesive&period; Gilbert made comments in a recent blog post about trying this during initial production&comma; but they dropped the idea&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I also think it would be beneficial to include additional dialogue lines when using incorrect action verbs&period; One example of how this detracts from gameplay is listening to Delores say&comma; &&num;8220&semi;I can&&num;8217&semi;t open that&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t open that&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t open that&comma;&&num;8221&semi; as you are trying to figure out if you can get into any of the kitchen cabinets&period; Even switching between&comma; &&num;8220&semi;I can&&num;8217&semi;t open that&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;Hmm&&num;8230&semi; this doesn&&num;8217&semi;t work&comma;&&num;8221&semi; would sound more natural and reactive&period; The repetitiveness instantly ages the game in a negative way&period; Maybe additional dialogue options and more in-depth writing will be added as updates are released&comma; but we haven&&num;8217&semi;t seen any hints of that coming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nevertheless&comma;<em> Thimbleweed Park<&sol;em> is an enjoyable ride down memory lane for fans of old school adventure games&period; The meta humor is enjoyable and the full touch screen controls make gameplay easier than ever&period; Playing on PC might give the player the fully evocative experience&comma; but I recommend this Switch port with touchscreen controls&period; The game is best enjoyed on hard mode&comma; as easy mode cuts out a significant amount of content&period; Also&comma; make sure to keep the game updated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A Switch review copy of<em> Thimbleweed Park<&sol;em> was provided by Terrible Toybox for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;