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The Adventures of Willy Beamish

aka: Les Aventures de Willy Beamish, The Adventures of Willy Beamish: What if you were nine again... knowing what you know now?
Moby ID: 1916

DOS version

Entertaining, but often arbitrarily difficult adventure game.

The Good
I do remember being extremely impressed by the graphics. As several others have noted, this game pioneered the hand-drawn look to give the whole thing a cartoon look and feel. This is probably the most successful aspect of Willy Beamish-it does indeed always feel like some sort of Saturday morning cartoon gone slightly twisted.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the cartoon motif is also the game's biggest flaw. Like most cartoons, Willy Beamish isn't always long on logic. I got the feeling during certain parts of the game that I was being unfairly punished, especially in dialog encounters with Willy's strange parents. I recall being prevented from giving a response that I thought would palliate them, so the end result is that I was screwed with whatever line I clicked on. That sort of thing is unacceptable in an adventure game like this one.

The Bottom Line
Take one part Sierra adventure game, two parts cartoon plot and animation, add in some illogical and painful puzzles, stir and bake until done.

by Lucas Schippers (57) on December 23, 2001

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