Reviews

Ingenious stuff which, surprisingly, didn't lead to any imitators. 'Stifflip...' is basically a graphic-adventure with all of the commands selected using a mixture of icons and text but the clever thing is the actions being played out in the form of a cartoon strip complete with speech-bubbles. An additional fighting element requiring mild arcade skills adds a little spice to a rather tasty game.

The setting is also brilliant. During the inter-war years, four clichéd Brits find themselves in South America on the trail of the villainous Count Chameleon. There are a lot of pokes at the attitudes of late-imperial Britain and it's all jolly good fun; reminiscent of a parody of Edgar Rice Burroughs or, more accurately, the Sexton Blake stories.

My only real criticism is that there was no sequel.

A peculiar icon-driven cartoon-styled adventure where you have to lead a pack of wacky characters in a South American country in the '20s in order to stop a mad scientist from making the fundamentals of the British empire - cricket games and the suchlike - collapse.

For non-British players most, if not all, of the humor is sadly unintelligible. Besides, the puzzles can sometimes be very subtle, even thin logically speaking - you sometimes have to resort to the old trial-and-error method, and this can easily lead to frustration.

However, the unusual presentation and the considerable depth of the game - it is split in two pretty long parts - make it a little gem, which should keep any adventure fun really busy.

I don't like much playing it, but I like very much the style.