Rocket 88 (Or Should That Be 93?)

The second demo I tried was

Elroy and the Aliens

Ah! You worked that out already. By looking at the big picture at the top, no doubt. The one where the designer appears to have decided to use all their favorite fonts at once. And can't make up their mind on capitalization, either.

And yet, somehow, it kinda-sorta works, doesn't it? It has that wholesome, homespun look, like a poster your artistically gifted tween daughter worked up in art class for her middle-school drama club's end-of-year production. 

The whole game has something of that feel about it, with Elroy himself giving off some serious Shaggy-from-Scooby-Doo vibes and a strong Saturday-Morning-Cartoons-in-the-Eighties feel to the whole thing. It's actually set in an alternate 1993 but to my memory, nineties' cartoons were a lot gnarlier and nastier than the clean surfaces and wholesome personalities on show in this game. Nope. Looks like the eighties to me.

The other thing that struck me immediately about Elroy and the Aliens is how overtly cinematic it is. This seems to be a thing with modern indie games, particularly advntures and visual novels, but it's not always done as convincingly as it is here.

When I say "cinematic", in this case we're talking cartoons, of course, but the whole range of camera movements and directorial flourishes is there - pans, sweeps, close-ups, establishing shots - all that good stuff that makes you feel like you're being told a story. And it's not a bad story, either, at least from what I can tell from the demo, which is also the opening chapter, just as it will appear in the finished game.

Here's the gist of the plot: Elroy, an engineering buff, whose famous archeologist father went missing eighteen years ago when Elroy was only five years old, has built himself a rocket that he claims will be the first to leave the atmosphere and then return to land in the same place from where it was launched. He's trying to get funding for the project and to that end he's willing to be interviewed by a reporter from the local paper.

The reporter, Peggie, duly arrives, waking Elroy from a night's sleep on the couch that also serves as his bed because he has that living on pizza, sleeping in your clothes, student stereotype down pat. It's clear she's more interested in Elroy because of who his father was than for what he might be able to do with his rocket.

After a series of mishaps and corrections, the rocket is ready to go. The pair hide behind a door while Elroy launches the rocket by remote control. It goes up, goes wrong, comes down and blows a hole in the flat roof back where it started, so at least the bit about landing where it took off goes right, even if nothing else does.

Elroy is understandably bummed about all this, particularly with a reporter there to record it all, but Peggie is more interested in something she sees glowing in the hole in the ceiling left by the crash. Elroy pokes it out with a broom handle and they see the object they've found has a big button in the middle. Naturally, Elroy immediately presses it because why wouldn't he?

The device turns out to be a hologram projector with a message from his father, who it turns out isn't dead after all but trapped somewhere, following the success of the mission on which he disappeared, where he was trying to track down the truth or otherwise of some myth or legend I can't remember the name of right now.

The legend was true but unfortunately for Elroy's dad, his partner wasn't. That guy, who now just happens to be the Mayor of Slope City, ran off, leaving the unfortunate archeolgist stranded with no way home. Stranded where, though? That's the question.

Dad tasks son with finding and rescuing him and Peggie, naturally, has to tag along for the story of a lifetime. And that's where the chapter and the demo ends, the rest of the game, presumably, revolving around that rescue operation and everything it reveals.

I remembered all of that without having to look anything up, which tells you a lot about how clear and straightforward the story-telling is. The writing throughout is very solid, playing to the strengths of the genres and media it draws from, while largely avoiding most of their flaws. 

All the characters are engaging. In the demo we meet just four characters (The full game apparently has more than sixty.) The ones in the demo are Elroy, Peggie the reporter, Elroy's neighbor who I kept wanting to call Mrs Kandinsky but who's actually called Mrs Kaminsky and Elroy's friend, a junkyard owner and software engineer, whose name I have completely forgotten. 

Every one of them is a stereotype but that's perfectly fine. Stereotypes are entirely appropriate for the style of the game and these are nicely individualized examples. They all have personality and charm, even though it's entirely the sort of personality and charm you'd expect them to have, before you ever heard them speak. The voice acting is equally solid and as firmly within expected operational paramaters, something that could never be said about Elroy's rocket.

Visually, the game is a joy. It has that hand-drawn animation look to it that's always so cosy and re-assuring. The scenes are all exactly as detailed as they need to be to feel convincing, without ever becoming overly distracting by way of unnecessary cruft. Animation is fairly basic but plenty good enough. In that respect, as in so many others, it feels true to the cartoons that so clearly inspired it.

As for the gameplay, it could scarcely be more traditional. If you like Point&Click adventures for what they do best, this is very much what you've been looking for. The mechanics and the UI are all well-designed, intuitive and comfortable. The problems are mostly practical, the solutions mostly logical, but none of it ever feels for one moment like something that could ever happen in real life.

In a Saturday Morning Cartoon, however, these are the sorts of thing happen all the time. It's marriage of two forms perfectly suited. No wonder so many P&C games go back so often to draw from the Saturday Morning Cartoon well. 

As must be obvious, I thoroughly enjoyed my half-hour with Elroy and his pals. This is a game I might actually buy and play, although maybe not quite as soon as just over a month from now, which is when it's due to go live.

Wishlisted and Recommended!