IFComp12: In a Manor of Speaking
In a Manor of Speaking starts off with you crashlanding:
Wumpity, wumpity, wumpity. That's the sound of your bouncing bottom as you struggle to guide your plane through the storms of the Bermuda Triangle.
So now we've established this is the sort of game that uses onomatopoeia and phrases like "bouncing bottom," your largely nonsensical adventure in Calembour has begun.
Not only are puns the lowest form of humor, they're also not particularly original. I thought I'd land somewhere between annoyed and hospitalized for eye-roll-related injury. I continued to worry as there were several played-out puns not even worth a groan in the first few rooms. Still, some of the puzzle solutions were amusing, and the pun-focused puzzles did have a sort of internally consistent logic that made it fun to try to predict how a particularly awful pun would come into play later.
The majority of puzzles involve inventory jokes; if somebody gives you a hug, it's in your inventory, likely to be use later to solve another puzzle.
There are some amusing moments where the author is clearly aware of the silliness:
>give brain to kangarude
Don't be a spoilsport! Say the phrase properly!
(Brain being a shortcut name that doesn't make the joke work.)
>take club
That joke's been done already!
Anyway, it's a silly diversion, and as diversions go it's fairly complete in its implementation; everything is detailed enough, and while this sort of odd puzzler could easily have had numerous 'huh?' problems, the internal pun logic and simple-but-adequate hint system was plenty.
6/10. Solid-but-silly offering. I'm guessing top third but possibly hated by those with higher brows and lower tolerance.
Wumpity, wumpity, wumpity. That's the sound of your bouncing bottom as you struggle to guide your plane through the storms of the Bermuda Triangle.
So now we've established this is the sort of game that uses onomatopoeia and phrases like "bouncing bottom," your largely nonsensical adventure in Calembour has begun.
Not only are puns the lowest form of humor, they're also not particularly original. I thought I'd land somewhere between annoyed and hospitalized for eye-roll-related injury. I continued to worry as there were several played-out puns not even worth a groan in the first few rooms. Still, some of the puzzle solutions were amusing, and the pun-focused puzzles did have a sort of internally consistent logic that made it fun to try to predict how a particularly awful pun would come into play later.
The majority of puzzles involve inventory jokes; if somebody gives you a hug, it's in your inventory, likely to be use later to solve another puzzle.
There are some amusing moments where the author is clearly aware of the silliness:
>give brain to kangarude
Don't be a spoilsport! Say the phrase properly!
(Brain being a shortcut name that doesn't make the joke work.)
>take club
That joke's been done already!
Anyway, it's a silly diversion, and as diversions go it's fairly complete in its implementation; everything is detailed enough, and while this sort of odd puzzler could easily have had numerous 'huh?' problems, the internal pun logic and simple-but-adequate hint system was plenty.
6/10. Solid-but-silly offering. I'm guessing top third but possibly hated by those with higher brows and lower tolerance.