Following on from last weeks cry for The Sexy Brutale to come to Nintendo Switch, the second title I would like to highlight on my Indies that should become #Nindies list is a title that hasn’t actually been released yet, but is one that has excited me for a long time.
Jenny LeClue – Detectivu is an upcoming point and click adventure game by indie developers, Joe Russ and Ben Tillett. Focusing on the titular brilliant young Detective, the game sees you thrown head first in to an epic adventure as your mother is accused of murder and it is up to you to unravel the tangled mystery of this death and the town of Arthurton.
Jenny may be the playable character of the game, but what players will actually be experiencing is an interactive story narrated by in game author, jam enthusiast and animal dental society member Arthur K Finklestein. Jenny LeCLue is his popular fictional series and through playing the game we will help shape his newest title. Finklestein will often highlight that something you are about to do is completely out of character for LeClue. Something as simple as turning on a radio late at night when Jenny knows this would usually attract attention and be a bad idea gives you the ability to go against his interpretation of Jenny and allows you to make the character your own.
Featuring ‘Choosiness on a massive scale’ choices and decisions we make will affect the way Jenny’s story is written. Taking cues from The Walking Dead and other Telltale Games titles, Jenny LeClue will have these decisions affect the overall narrative which will apparently be continued over in to future installments. Talking of the narrative, the writing and humor I have witnessed so far has been extremely strong and may well be the best aspect of a game I already have high hopes for.
As with all good point and click titles, Jenny LeClue features an array of puzzles with their own clues. The playable demo available on the Jenny LeClue website finds you breaking in to a study during a dark and stormy night. Searching for clues within the room leads you to a cryptic bookshelf puzzle which can only be solved by interpreting the clues you found. This is a nicely sized puzzle, and is hopefully indicative of the type we will see in the final game.
For me, the first thing that stood out when I first happened across this title was the beautiful aesthetics of the game. Be it the quirky cast of characters or the locations visited, the visuals have a lovely handmade feel to them. With the quality and abundance of the 2D hand painted backgrounds, it is apparent that there are a large number of talented artists involved in the creation of this potential gem.
The animation is slick and smooth throughout and the design of the world itself encourages you to check out every nook and cranny by rewarding you with snippets of humor or just lovely visual effects as seen above. Checking out objects multiple times gifts you with new gags or takes on the items in question, like a deer skull that initially catches you off guard with its glowing red eyes and sharp musical burst, and repeated viewings changes the effect until Jenny points out why she wont look at it again in a humorous manner.
Jenny LeClue is currently scheduled to be released on Mobile, PC and PS4 sometime this year, but is another game that I think would be a great fit for the Switch. Firstly, the point and click nature of the game syncs up nicely with the touchscreen of the Switch. The title could combine the mobile and PS4 controls in to one version to allow for people to play in either docked or undocked modes as they see fit.
Secondly is the fact that the designers of the game encourage you to play with headphones plugged in. I completely agree here as the sound design in the demo is wonderful. It really helped pull me in to the title and created an unparalleled atmosphere. I believe that playing in handheld mode with headphones would really be the best way to experience this title. I can honestly picture myself curled up on an sofa with the curtains shut and just getting absorbed in to this wonderfully crafted world.
Check out the trailer below as well as the demo to see what you think, but i’m sure that you’ll agree that this title definitely looks like a fun and quirky adventure that would be a fantastic addition to the ever growing library of quality indie titles available on Nintendo Switch.
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