The Wizard Sniffer - Buster Hudson

[spoiler]Blurb:

Well now… I’m a pig masquerading as a supernatural being? Yes, please!

General Impressions:

I enjoyed the heck out of this game. The puzzles were just the right difficulty and just the right sort for me (the rubbish heap of tired puzzles right at the start was deeply reassuring) and I enjoyed what turned out to be a silly fairy-tale adventure. I made use of, and appreciated, the in-game hint system. The whole thing took me over two hours to complete (I voted right as I hit the two hour mark, of course), but I never felt stuck and it never felt like a slog.

The Good:

  • The writing. It was delightfully ridiculous. A “hero” singing Wonderwall who the protagonist refuses to call “Guitar Hero”? Excellent. And the “solution” to the vending machine puzzle actually had me laugh out loud.
  • I was a little uneasy when I first entered Tristain’s room, especially given the general silliness of the game and the note on the memo about wigs. I was afraid that the game was going to use cross-dressing or Tristain being some flavour of queer as a joke. I was pleased to find that this wasn’t the case at all. The game came down very much on the side of “be who you are, and don’t be an ass to others,” which I deeply appreciated. There were even inklings of a queer romance that I thought was treated very respectfully. Well done.

The Bad:

  • Very little, really. I suppose if I had to find something to dislike, I guess I wanted the game to be a little stronger on its themes, to be more about something than it was. But that’s fishing on my part, to a certain extent.
  • I figured out pretty early on that I was the princess. It didn’t impact my enjoyment of the game in the slightest, but if the game was trying to keep that a surprise, it didn’t manage it.

Conclusion:

A great little game that felt like a fairy-tale with a modern moral. “Don’t be afraid to be who you are, whoever that might be. And don’t ridicule others for doing so.” It’s already made its way into my “IF Games Worth Keeping” folder.[/spoiler]

I’ve posted a review and transcripts here: blog.templaro.com/review-wizard-sniffer/

I see what you did there. Thanks for the great review and the helpful feedback!

Wait, there’s a built-in clue system??