"Scum!!!"
 

Created by Relentless Software, the same team that brought the Buzz! games to the PS2 and PS3, Blue Toad Murder Files is a puzzle centric game very similar to the Professor Layton series on Nintendo DS.  But unlike its handheld brethren, Blue Toad offers slightly less freedom in favor of new multiplayer options.  The six episodic chapters take place in the sleepy English town of Little Riddle, where all isn't as quintessential as you first believe.  Arriving in Little Riddle for a vacation from the exhausting life of solving crime, your peace is soon interrupted as the town mayor is shot before your eyes!  You vow to track down the murderer and restore this village to its quiet ways.

In Blue Toad, players are given the choice of four characters: Dick Dickens, the boy wonder; Hannah Dakota, the young Veronica Mars; Vanderbosh, the stuffy, mustached sleuth; and Margery Maple, the Grandma of the bunch.  There are no unique character voices for them but are each translated by the narrator, who speaks in second person.  However, one of the coolest things about this game is the fact that one man voices every character.  Kudos to Tom Dussek for capturing every personality quite nicely, from the pompous Inspector Bragg to the obnoxious Barmaid.  Most individuals have their own personal verbal tics that I found quite amusing.  The Hotel Manager is by far my favorite character, reminding me very much of the neurotic and often hysterical Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) from Fawlty Towers.

 
This is truly a family friendly game, allowing both solo and multi-player game play.  The latter option allows players to compete against each other, each person able to solve each puzzle and privately choosing the whodunit at the end of every chapter.  Young and old alike will enjoy the colorful, cartoon-esque graphics and storyline.  The relative ease of puzzle solving will keep younger players from becoming frustrated and the older adult crowd will love the typical snarky humor of English entertainment.  Melodramatic 40s era detective music lends an authenticity to the overall styling of the graphics: vintage automobiles, cobblestone-type roads and impeccable character fashion sense.

The puzzles introduce a fun way to work on your memory and problem solving skills – another great perk for young kids.  With over ninety puzzles, memory games and cross examinations, each games runs you a little over an hour.  Most are fairly easy, but there are a few head scratchers, making it important to be creative in your solving process!  If you solve a puzzle the first time, within the time limit (most run around ninety seconds), you receive a gold ribbon.  Get it wrong and the game will ask if you want to try again or give up; give up, and the narrator mocks you for failing.  After that, receiving the silver or bronze ribbon depends on the amount of time it takes you to finish and the number of times it takes to get it right.

There are a few drawbacks when it comes to Blue Toad.  The narrator literally walks you through everything; those who enjoy going off and spending time figuring things out on their own will quickly become annoyed at the lack of freedom the game offers.  There are no choices you can make on your own.  Of course, you still need to pay attention to all the dialogue, because it DOES come back in the puzzles, when you have to recall who said what and when.  Along that line, if you've heard the dialogue before and want to avoid it the next time around, that's too bad – there is no way to jump ahead when people are speaking.  You just have to sit and wait.  

Another minor complaint is in the captioning.  It automatically captions all dialogue on the bottom of the screen but the font is white, sometimes making it difficult to read, depending on the color of the background at the moment.  Luckily, most of the dialogue is clear, in spite of the heavy English accents.  

Unfortunately, unless you’re a trophy hunter, this is a one-off experience.  I was slightly turned off by this, especially when it comes to the price tag – $14.99 for the first three bundled episodes is worth the one-time game play, but the individual price of $7.49 seems a little steep to me.

At the end of the day, Blue Toad Murder Files is a fun, easy game to pick up and learn with lots of stuff to keep players intrigued.  The story and dialogue will not change, no matter how many times you play, but the game is well worth the bundled price and will keep everyone happily entertained for a few hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

ComicsOnline gives Blue Toad Murder Files 4 shifty, sneaky townspeople out of 5.

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