Tangle Tower

« Tangle Tower is a delightful time all the way through. Its gorgeous art style, animation, intriguing mystery, and full voice acting make it stand out, even among the best of its contemporaries. While the ending does feel rushed, there’s still plenty here to love and it only makes me want more of Detective Grimoire and Sally’s sleuthing. »

« I can tell a lot of passion went into this game. There are just so many details, and the character’s personalities are really reflected in body language and vocals. I would highly recommend you check out Tange Tower. It’s amazing! »

« Tangle Tower is built around an excellent whodunit mystery that moves along at just the right pace. There’s a great balance of plot, puzzle, and humour, and it does a good job of keeping you invested all the way to the very end. In this respect, you could say that the game carries on in the traditions of the very best adventure games from a few decades ago — but it manages to do so in a way that feels undeniably fresh. »

« Whether it be a question to be answered, an answer to be analysed, or a line to laugh at, there is never a dull moment in Tangle Tower. The overflowing wit, charm, and warmth carries the experience right to the end and leaves you wanting more. Despite the Switch port’s flaws, I still urge you to set aside an afternoon to delve deep into the world of Tangle Tower. It is seriously such a genius experience that’ll appeal to both your brain and heart. »

« Charming, original, and terrifically paced, Tangle Tower is a strong contender for the best point-and-click adventure of 2019. Puzzles require real wit without bogging readers down with irrelevant information. Each screen is filled to the brim with detail, blending colour and lighting into a living, breathing tower. Only a few hours long with a gripping mystery at the centre of its plot, Tangle Tower is a must play for fans of the genre. »

« The overall case is somewhat neat and tidy - it won’t take you much more than a few hours to solve the mystery - but the journey along the way is enjoyable. The voice acting and standout art and animation fits the distinctive characters very well, and with few exceptions, the puzzles and deduction sequences are engaging and brain-wrinkling. I hope this is the start of a new era in Detective Grimoire’s career, because I wouldn’t mind revisiting this world and gameplay style again soon. »

« Tangle Tower is an exemplary addition to the point-and-click genre, providing superb puzzles and very well written dialogue, backed up by some of the finest voiceover work in recent memory. A few of the character interactions may drag on a bit too long in places as you try and uncover every piece of evidence available to you, and there’s little reason to play through the game multiple times. But to be honest, these are very minor gripes considering just how much fun we had in the company of Detectives Grimoire and Sally. »

« Tangle Tower draws you in with its superb presentation and hooks you with its alluring mystery, likable cast, and entertaining puzzles. It can be genuinely hard to put down, and one of the most enjoyable point-and-click games in recent memory. »

« Although the game falls short of a perfect 10 because of an ending that seemed to come out of nowhere, let’s just say I enjoyed my experience enough that the sequel will be an instance purchase for me later this year. As others have pointed out, the voice acting is brilliant and the best “ensemble work” I’ve ever heard in a video game—the timing and mood was pitch perfect on all fronts. Some reviewers complain that the puzzles were too easy—well thank goodness, because not all of us are puzzle masterminds who have been playing video games their entire lives. Personally I did not find them overly easy and sometimes I have brain fog or just feel lazy. I think I only ever used the mechanic once, but man was it awesome to have a hint system built into the game! That is a huge plus in my book because games should be accessible for everyone. If you don’t need it, don’t use it! I probably would not have taken a chance on this game had they not put a free demo on the Nintendo eshop, as ports can be unpredictable. This one played beautifully on the Switch. Great fun. »

« Very cool concept, good plot and satisfying puzzles. Hope the next chapter will be great too. »

« A mystery with a nonsensical resolution is not a good mystery. I loved a lot about the game, but the complete let down of an ending retroactively killed it entirely. What a disappointment. »

« If you like Professor Layton, you’re gonna like this game. The locations, the characters, the music, the puzzles, the mystery. It’s all here. »

« [SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.] »

« There are three key components to a murder mystery: means, motive, and opportunity. You spend most of the game on the first of these. You never establish opportunity: one suspect lies about their alibi and you never prove otherwise. Motive is never even touched on until the end, and it has to be spoon-fed to you because there aren't any clues at all. So as a murder mystery, it's very unsatisfying. The reviews of this game frame it as a puzzle game, but there are only about half a dozen puzzles in the game. You'll spend only a very small amount of your playtime on them. And if you're a fan of puzzle games, you won't find them remotely challenging. So as a puzzle game, it's also very unsatisfying. The bulk of the gameplay consists of talking to the suspects about each other and about the clues you find. Some of these are frustrating because they're gated behind certain other conversation options. For instance, one of the clues you find is a telescopic lens. If you've ever encountered a telescope or spyglass at any time in your life, you know what a telescopic lens looks like. And yet, when one character calls it a microscopic lens, you can't challenge them on it until you show it to one specific other character first. Several of them know what type of lens it is, but only one of them triggers the dialogue option. The game has several of these, which force you to show arbitrary items to arbitrary characters to make progress. So as an interview/point-and-click game, it's again very unsatisfying. I will say that the art, world-building, and voice acting are top notch. And the writing is also great except that the murder mystery part of it doesn't make a ton of sense. That's not enough for me to be able to recommend this game as a game, though. »

« A well-designed mystery game with a great story and interesting characters, a distinctive art style, and excellent music. What more do you want? One of the few mystery games that really made my wife and I exclaim audibly when the big reveal came around, and yet, when it happened, we found there had been subtle clues all along that we could have picked up on if we had been just a little bit sharper. We have spent the last half a day still talking about the motive behind the crime, the other characters involved, the possibility of the ending not being the true ending (meaning some loose ends were not actually resolved, although they were presented as resolved), and etc. That seems like the mark **** mystery to me. All in all, a really fun game. I am only giving this game a 9 and not a 10 because of the price—this game took me and my wife about 6 hours to complete, and $20 MSRP is too expensive for that length ****, in my opinion. »

« This games feels like true nostalgia of old mystery PC games. It is a true upgrade between the art work, the story, the music, and overall design. From the moment you start you will hear captivating voice acting which serves to bring characters to life. If you get yourself truly involved with the story, and focus on little clues throughout the way, you will find yourself excited to move forward. This game does a great job at slowly revealing things, and a lot of things you just need to pick up on yourself. At one point I audibly gasped as I realized I had already solved part of something from early on, only later to discover I was half way correct, on my way there, but of course their was a twist. The story is intelligent. The puzzles are hard enough, not so hard you will be googling tutorials although hard enough that when you finally finish a puzzle you feel accomplished. I highly recommend this game, as it is enjoyable, fun, mysterious, and it makes for a great interactive story. »