Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town has been released on the Switch. The game is a third-person puzzle adventure set against the backdrop of a pirate-themed environment...

Willy must travel to Bone Town

Ten years have gone by since Willy’s father disappeared when unexpectedly a letter arrives. It is from his father. The letter says that Willy must travel to Bone Town and enter room 9 in the old inn.

Intrigued, Willy sets off for Bone Town. But hold on, he will need some transport to get there, but he has deconstructed his bike for other uses in the house. Willy’s first task is to reconstruct his bike, but it will not be easy. So, begins your journey through a point and click world, full of puzzles.

All the puzzles needed to solve the game are the sorts that are obvious once you have figured them out, but they are not handed to you on a plate, you must work for them.

To help Willy you can interact with the world around him, picking up objects that you can store in the inventory as well as combining objects to make something new. The world is presented in a rather cute cartoon fashion, where much of the world and objects are slightly distorted, giving the whole experience a dream-like quality. Willy is not alone in his world and the player has over fifteen other characters to interact with.

Willy’s first task is to reconstruct his bike

The hunt for the bicycle acts as both an introduction to Willy and his dilemma, but also as the game’s tutorial. Whilst this portion of the game is linear, most of the game is not, leaving you free to explore Bone Town, talking to the characters and trying to find clues that will move you closer to finding out what happened to Willy’s father.

There are some restrictions on how linear parts of the game are, for instance when you must obtain a book in Bone Town the game will only let you enter the library. You can walk to the museum and restaurant, but the game politely denies you entry and reminds you where it is you are supposed to go.

There are over fifteen other characters to interact with

It would certainly be easy to compare this pirate-themed game to Money Island and while it does have some of its DNA Willy is not a copy in any way. One of the things it has going for it is that it tells a well-constructed and coherent story, which keeps you pressing forward to solve, not only the individual puzzles but also the whole mystery.

The overall difficulty of the game is not too hard and with over two hours of original music, this is a very relaxing game. The game takes between three-to-four-hours to complete, depending on your puzzle solving skills and does not take itself too seriously.

It may not be pushing any game envelopes, but Willy provides a solid gaming experience which works well both on the Switch and the Switch Lite.

8

Charles Packer