In the veins of classic, as well as more recent, adventure games The Next BIG Thing is a comedy based click on everything until something works excursion. Set in what appears to be a middle of the last century America where monster movies are acted out by real monsters and some random, and rather mysterious, happenings start occurring around a major movie lot that simply must be investigated. The setting is always key in any adventure game, as the world the characters interact with express possible solutions for the puzzles that pop-up, but that isn’t to say that this game doesn’t have some surprises waiting.
The key difference between this game and most of the other major titles that have come out recently is that The Next BIG Thing has the advantage of a help button that does everything besides solve the puzzle that is currently being worked on. When the help button is pressed the games narrator appears and simply sounds like he is trying to remember what happened next in the course of the story. While this is a welcome addition to most adventure games, it really does become too easy to simply say, “screw it,” at the first sign of trouble and simply hit the button at the first sign of being stumped.
There is also a rather interesting inclusion of a hotspot button that highlights all of the areas that can be clicked on for interaction. For those that have entirely more will than I, this button will probably come in more useful than simply hitting the help button and hoping that solves everything. This troubling because there are times that interact points become unclear because they are so close to other points, such as entire doors to other areas that almost overlap. This could be skimmed over except for the fact that the game keeps track of everything done, down to mouse clicks, so a glaring reminder of how much help the player needed is always right in front of your face.
The game does have an amazing voice cast. The entire cast does a great job at portraying the lines that they were given, and at times are even laugh out loud funny. The problem is, in the case of the main male lead, can come off as abrasive, annoying or even unlikeable. In the case of Dan, the sort-of main character, all of the characters in the game keep calling him an amazing and wonderful guy—although oddly he only seems to be a controlling jerk who only cares about seeming cool while failing fantastically at it—all of this is oddly done well by the voice actor.
The Next BIG Thing is in no way a bad game, and the graphics—while dated—hold a certain level of charm in the way that they portray the cartoony world, it is just that it isn’t nearly as good as some of the other adventure games that have come out in recent memory. For anyone out there that can’t get enough of this genre, and can’t wait the month for the next Telltale release of whatever they are working on, this is a pleasant buy. Anyone else who might be getting leery of this content feel entirely free to watch some videos of the funnier stuff on YouTube.
Not As Good As: Most Telltale Game
Also Try: Sam & Max Season 3
Wait For It: Telltale to release a box set of all of their games
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