Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle – Episodes 1 and 2

The Christmas season is a good time for murder. While many of us have murderous thoughts around the dinner table, you’ll find the TV schedules dish up a brutal death or two for our enjoyment. But what about the gamers? Where can we get our fill of murder and mayhem? Fire up the PS3, hop onto the Playstation Network and you’ll find the first two episodes of this fantastic murder-mystery series. Let’s examine the evidence, shall we?

For those of you who have missed any of the coverage of Blue Toad Murder Files in magazines and this very site, let me fill you in. Embodying the feel of every British murder-mystery from Midsommer Murders to Miss Marple, you play a detective (one of four including a little old lady and a young boy complete with faithful crime hound) visiting the sleepy village of Little Riddle. Faced with a death in the populous, it’s up to you to solve the crime and point your finger of justice at the guilty culprit.

I feel I should go on record now and say that this is the title I purchased my PS3 for. Sure, I’ve played Uncharted 2. dabbled with Eyepet and had a bash at Killzone 2 but they’ve just been the filler as I’ve patiently waited for the week before Christmas when I’d finally get a chance to revisit Little Riddle. I’ll also say now that I’m not going to say anything about the storyline, as I don’t want to spoil an ounce of the experience for anyone who plays it. It’s really that good.

Everything about BTMF is polished. The graphics are beautiful, with a great cartoony feel akin to that you’d find in a big-screen production. It exudes a very British charm from every pixel, offering a playful caricature of everything you’d expect to find in a quintessentially British village. Visit the hotel and your first thought will be of Basil Fawlty. While cliched, it’s done with such love and care that you will just lap it up without a second thought. The voice acting throughout the game is superb and, perhaps more surprisingly, all the work of one incredibly talented man. So the graphics and sounds are spot on, but it’s the gameplay where this title really takes off.

Originally conceived and tested in board game form, countless hours of work have been ploughed into the gameplay and it really shows through. Exploring Little Riddle is a joy – it’s easy to navigate and you never know what you’re going to come across. As you make your way around the village talking to the locals and gathering clues you’ll encounter a smattering of puzzles to test your grey matter. Drawing comparisons to Professor Layton is unavoidable at this point but where BTMF stands alone is that the puzzles are more at home in the storyline  than many Layton puzzles are. You’ll find sixteen puzzles in each episode, ranging from brainteasers to observation quizzes (pay attention to everything, just in case) and the final whodunit. These puzzles have been extensively tested in the Relentless offices with only the cream of the crop making it into the final episodes and are of a high quality but not too taxing as to take all the fun out of playing the game.

As the game has been produced and published by Relentless Software, the brains behind the family favourite Buzz!, you’ll find a multi-player element to the game – a surprising feature for something which, on face value at least, looks to be a very single-player experience. Up to four players can play together (either using individual pads or pass-the-pad), as each puzzle is scored upon completion. Even the final whodunit hides each player’s verdict as it’s registered allowing for a big reveal. What you’ll find, however, is that a multi-player session will rapidly evolve from one of competitiveness to one of co-operation as it becomes increasingly difficult to not join in with other people’s problem solving along the way! The multiplayer is a great excuse to get the whole family involved – it’s simple enough to be understandable to even the least game-savvy member of your family and, with Christmas just around the corner, could make a pleasant change from post-turkey charades.

From start to finish each episode will take up about an hour an a half of your time, which doesn’t seem like a lot. That really doesn’t matter, as every single minute you spend in Little Riddle – from the opening credits to the dramatic ending – is time well spent. Blue Toad Murder Files draws you in, wraps you in a blanket of Britishness, gives you a cup of tea and a biscuit and makes the whole experience a joy to behold. As for re-playability – sure, you’ll know the answers and you’ll know who did it but that doesn’t stop you watching endless repeats of crime drama on TV or re-reading that well-thumbed Agatha Christie novel and it’s no different here. It’s all about the escapism, and there are far worse places to escape to than Little Riddle.

I’ll see you there.