Fresh off of their second Buzz game on the PS3, Relentless Software set out on their own to make their latest game. Blue Toad Murder Files offers an episodic murder mystery experience that allows for up to four friends to work together to solve the case.

The first episode of Blue Toad Murder Files begins with your arrival in the town of Little Riddle, a peaceful town that is sure to be embroiled in murders and conspiracies worthy of the Blue Toad Murder Agency. The story tries to present itself with a lot of humor and awareness of murder mystery tropes that it frequently uses, but the execution kind of falls flat most of the time with only a few laughs to be had through all three episodes. Little Riddle definitely captures the look and feel of the stereotypical English village with many of the different styles of English characters that you interact with.

Blue Toad Murder Files works similarly to the Professor Layton games on the DS in that witnesses and suspects always present a puzzle for you to solve that may or may not relate to the mystery at hand, but they at least result in some information to help you along. Each episode features 12 puzzles that you have to solve throughout the episode, most of which are simple brain teasers, which you’re rewarded with medals based on how quickly and accurately you solved them. You’re also quizzed a few times in each episode to prove whether you’ve been paying attention or not to what has happened.

Outside of those puzzles, Blue Toad Murder Files is nothing like Professor Layton, as it’s a much faster and more linear experience that’s much more like a TV show than the other episodic series out there. You’re never free to just explore Little Riddle, as you just have a few locations at any one time to visit without any extracurricular activities to be seen to extend the fun. The culprits aren’t very easy to figure out outside of maybe one clue that appears at some point to clearly identify the guilty party if you noticed the evidence.

The lack of any replay value may be Blue Toad Murder Files’ biggest issue. Once you’ve beaten an episode, you’ve seen everything that the episode had to offer, which makes a second run for the trophies or to show to your friends a much less interesting experience. The ability to play with four players at once gives the game a bit of a party vibe that is destroyed when you realize that you get virtually the same experience with one controller as you do with four.

Blue Toad Murder Files does have the same art style as the Buzz series of quiz games, which doesn’t get as crazy here since Blue Toad is based more on reality than a quiz show really requires. Little Riddle itself looks like an interesting location with quite a few visually interesting locales mixed in with the normal suburban shops and homes.

The narrator of Blue Toad Murder Files plays a huge role in the story’s presentation since he pretty much narrates throughout the entire episode, which has its good and bad effects. It’s bad in the sense that there are no voices for the main character you’re in control of to let them actually be characters in the story, but the good part is that he does a good job of hamming it up when it’s necessary for his role as narrator. The soundtrack also helps add to the cheesiness of the story with a familiar style of music that you’d expect for a murder mystery.

Blue Toad Murder Files offers a decent experience whose potential is undermined by the short, shallow episodes that are just a one way trip with no replay value. If you’re still interested, the three episode bundle for $15 is the best option versus paying $7.49 for one episode that will cost more if you do like it. We’re at least hoping the last three episodes offer some good payoffs to end this series when they are released on April 29, which may be a good sign to wait and hope for a sale of some kind.

Final Score: 6.7 | Recommendation: On Sale Only

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About This Author: Chris Selogy

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