Ferris Mueller's Day Off Review

Deviating from the moodiness of the Forever Lost series, it's time for Glitch Games to change things up and offer a much warmer and more comedic adventure game in the form of Ferris Mueller's Day Off.

Using a similar interface to Forever Lost, that's mostly where the similarities stop. This time around, the tale is focused on finding a 'sick' mule who has wandered off. It takes much of its influence from the film of the (almost) same name, with liberal scatterings of references to other significant films of the 80s. More recent forms of media are included here too, such as a reference to Django Unchained as well as Breaking Bad.

It's a fun mix of pop culture references, making one keen to see more of the story unfold. A plethora of puzzles further enhances the experience, even if the links between them are sometimes pretty tenuous. While some are pretty simple, requiring manipulation of sliding tiles, others are much more lateral, requiring the combination of various items in order to get past an awkward situation. Then there are the odd couple that really don't make much sense. Fortunately a comprehensive hint system ensures that one never gets stuck for too long, but it would have been nice to not feel so reliant upon it at certain points. The ability to pursue numerous different puzzles at once does help in keeping things ticking along nicely, though.

Throughout, Ferris Mueller's Day Off maintains a rough yet appealing styling. It's reminiscent of older point-and-click adventures; offering simplicity yet a nostalgic charm of its own. An in-game camera ties into the puzzles quite well, again invoking memories of how Forever Lost played out. Despite such similarities however, Ferris Mueller's Day Off is a very different beast and benefits from such a change of pace.

Humour is a difficult thing to carry across into gaming effectively. While it doesn't always hit the spot and it often relies on knowledge of the things referenced and the warmth they convey, there's enough here to entertain.