INSPECTOR WAFFLES

DEVELOPER Goloso Games PRICE $18.50 AVAILABILITY Released WEBSITE https://store.steampowered.com/app/ 1055850/Inspector_Waffles/

Don’t be fooled by the cuteness of Inspector Waffles’ name. He’s a bad cop. He acts without a warrant. He drinks his milk strong. When he gets stuck on a case, he calls his mum for help. Wait, what? This (actually) cute adventure game has a hilarious, inbuilt hint system. Waffles’ mum, a retired inspector, will give you a context specific hint, but she’ll also check if you’ve washed your jacket and are coming for lunch on Sunday, just to make you feel like a kitten. As you may know, I love low spoiler hints and Waffles’ mum stops just short of a full solution.

Cleverly, Waffles’ mum is one of two things that effectively allows players to control the difficulty of their adventure game experience. You can also turn on a system of highlighted clues, so that keywords in the dialogue will appear in yellow. For example, Waffles might say, “There’s a hole at the bottom of the door,” with the words “a hole” being in yellow, prompting you to explore the hole. It doesn’t feel like cheating, it just focuses your attention. With this turned off, it’s more like a classic adventure. With it turned on, puzzling is faster and fun.

Oddly enough, I was more often stumped by the UI, to begin with. Given the hint system, I would have (at least) expected a button to toggle hotspots, but you’re often pixel hunting through a glut of chunky, colourful scenes to find what else you can interact with. The dialogue system is also confusing, to start with, but then fleshes out puzzling well. Conversation progresses through “questions” and, for each, you then select relevant “clues” or inventory items to learn new information. Occasionally, the order doesn’t flow logically, but it’s great, overall.

I have to admit to laughing out loud, on several occasions. There’s the cat puns. And the dog puns. The best humour occurs when the animals are behaving according to their innate nature, but aren’t aware of it. A group of cats, at a crime scene, can’t figure out a dog’s computer password, because they can’t think like a dog. Even funnier is when you need a hairdryer and have to find the breed of dog who would have one. Here was I thinking that it was poodle owners who wanted their poodle to get a fancy makeover, but no, it is the poodles themselves!

My favourite character is Spotty, your sidekick. He’s just like Kim Kitsuragi, from Disco Elysium; loyal and law-abiding. At one point, you tell him to “stay” and, (game) hours later, he is exactly where you left him. Unlike many adventures, where you are constantly exploring static scenes, the story is dynamic, everything is constantly changing. Even solving a tiny puzzle is an excuse for something to change. Then, suddenly, you’re playing as your boss, with an inventory full of candy and one clue written in your notebook, querying who would be stronger, a hippo or an elephant.

Every item and gag are there for a reason, even if you don’t know why, at first. There are a couple of great plot twists, too. Even using the jukebox to scroll through the game’s music prompts Waffles to mention the locations where you heard each of them. (I love how the music always speaks to both the detective-related context and each cutscene or location.) Ultimately, Inspector Waffles is a story about placing your hand into the trash can to look for clues because it’s what you need to do to keep the city safe, even if it makes you feel like an alley cat.