If you have seen the screenshots of Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle, it’s as obvious as it gets; you solve a murder mystery, following a linear storyline with puzzles in between. You get the idea, unless you’ve never played the genre.

So, with games like the Blue Toad Murder Files series, developers have a few options to tweak the variables of game elements, delivering “fun” to its audience. In this case, there’s a narrator explaining the situation, so voice acting is crucial. And rather than going totally serious, Blue Toad Murder Files throws in a whimsical mood so dialogues between characters have to be clever.

MURDER, you say???

So, does Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle develier all those features? Yes, and yes in high quality. That’s good news, right? Oh, I don’t know. Since the game has been pushed in the right direction, now the real question is “Will YOU enjoy this English-accent narrated, quirky-yet-witty story-told and voice acted, interactive visual novel?” If you answered YES, or Maybe, then you might want to keep reading.

The Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle has a total of six episodes, each of them can be downloaded separately. By saying this, it may sound like a spoiler, but I say if you’ve watched a video clip of this game (no demo so far) and like the style, you should download everything because I really enjoyed the ending. Since I hate giving out even the smallest details for spoiling your fun, I won’t speak any further on the game story.

Our hypothesis is that the game is made by the U.K. developer..

Okay, now we know what kind of game it is, let’s talk more about the technical side of the game. The game control is as simple as it gets; usually you won’t be needing more than a single button to proceed through the puzzles. Though the game looks intended for a younger audience, the difficulty might suggest otherwise; many of them were fun but I would be telling you a lie if all of them were easy. In fact, some of them really stressed out my braincells. Also, the game supports multiplayer, forcing players to take turns at the puzzle. You can compete for the better score.

The visual of the game feels well balanced, with colors and design. The game doesn’t need any experimental-graphic-gone-wrong, and it doesn’t have any; nothing stands out unless it needs to. Maybe there’s a few more headrooms for improvement on overall design, but it just works fine as it is. We didn’t find much of a distraction from the game.

A peaceful(?) town called Little Riddle.

Well, just by looking at the screenshots, there doesn’t seem to be anything special about it, right? Well, it’s because the graphics is only half of it. Actually, I think it’s less than half of it, thanks to the well-written dialogues between characters, quirky narration and story-telling. If I’m not mistaken, the whole game -every character’s voice with narration- is done by ONE person. That’s right! ONE! The voice acting was purposely in over-dramatic style, yet it fits the game style so perfectly that it’ll be hard not to find it charming. The voice acting just beats the crap out of so many other games out there in the area. Little details also kept me laughing. For example, if you ever get to play this game, and when it comes to the point where you have to press the “X button” to proceed, wait for a bit and hear what the narrator has to say.

There is room for improvement, like the game controls or UI. But the game just balances its features so well with each other that it’s good as it is. Surely, the game isn’t for everyone; the character’s design itself wasn’t something that I craved, but it did give me a few good laughs and good times. I’ll admit it though; the game pace might feel a bit slow if  you’re use to quick surprises or just point-and-shoot games. Also, the replay value is certainly lower, unless you’re going for all of the trophies.

If you prefer playing FPS to blow up people, this game might not be the one for you. If you like silly fun, solving puzzle games between watching a well-presented narration, or just have a couple of beers in a fridge and wanna have a silly-fun time, this might be a good investment.

Our Score: 7.5 /10

Are you ready to solve the MUR~DER~ mystery? (Dun Dun Dun~~~~)