Nostalgia is an odd creature, there is a peculiar thread in most generations that feel they lived through a golden era, for which the current world is a pale and unartistic reflection.

Unusual Findings is a point and click game

Of course, none of this is true, each era has its highs and lows, except for the nineteen-seventies, which was truly horrific, trust me, I was there.

The Eighties was the era which produced Ghostbusters, Top Gun and The Karate Kid. The era is looked on with such fondness that Stranger Things was set in that period, full of the iconography of the time.

So, what happens when you cannot afford the rights to Stranger Things, but still think it’s a cool idea to set a game in that period with a Goonies feel? Well, you make Unusual Findings, a point and click game, with enough cultural references which are slightly blurred enough so you don’t get sued for using some else’s intellectual property.

You play as a trio of teens who discover that there is a violent alien in town. The problem is that they cannot get any adults to believe them.

If you’re nostalgic for the eighties, then you’re going to love this aesthetically pleasing world

As a point and click game, it’s pretty much what you would expect. The trio, Tony, Vinnie and Nick, spend their time travelling across the map to collect useful items which can then be combined into something useful.

If you’re nostalgic for the eighties, then you’re going to love this aesthetically pleasing world, full of posters and action figures from the time. Though, that said, there are at times, an overabundance of them, the game's creators do not ascribe to the idea that less is more.

The pixel art is presented in a third person perspective and works well, although the characters look clunky, they are easy to control, and the game has gone so far as to give them differing facial expressions, depending on what they are reacting to.

The interface is nicely intuitive. On the bottom left you have your inventory where you can see all the items that you have collected. The top right has a flying saucer which will temporarily highlight spots for you to interact with. Finally at the top left you have the menu.

Play as a trio of teens who discover that there is a violent alien in town

As you progress, the game throws another protagonist into the mix and the boys must decide how to deal with this. The nice thing about the game is that it has many branching decision trees which allows for differing play throughs depending on how you decided to act in any situation – mature/childish – which will also impact on how much help the other characters will offer.

If the game had a downside, it would be the writing which is sometimes flat and the voice acting wish is generally poor.

7

Charles Packer