GAME REVIEW – Inspector Waffles: Early Days (Game Boy Color, PC)

By Marty Mulrooney

Inspector Waffles: Early Days is described by its solo developer Yann (Goloso Games) as ‘a top-down detective adventure with point-and-click mechanics.’ Inspired by classic Game Boy games – and with Game Boy Color as its lead platform – it looks and plays like a forgotten handheld gem from the ’90s, with players taking control of Waffles in his first days as an inspector in Cat Town. It launched today on Steam and Good Old Games, with the ROM version available on Itch.io and physical Game Boy cartridges available via Broke Studio.

Spit into six ‘cases’, Inspector Waffles: Early Days immediately impresses with its audio-visual presentation. Looking back at the best titles on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, it’s amazing how far developers managed to push beyond the limitations of the hardware. Sprawling games such as Link’s Awakening, James Bond 007 and Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow made the player feel like they were just a small part of a much larger world, and Early Days can now be added to that list.

Each case is self-contained while still forming part of an overarching narrative. As Waffles investigates, new locations are revealed and can be visited via a map of Cat Town – a feature highly reminiscent of Broken Sword. Other staples of the genre, including an inventory and dialogue trees, are also present and correct, and it’s truly impressive how a bona fide adventure has been shrunk down to fit within the confines of the Game Boy Color.

The main gameplay loop consists of talking to NPCs and gathering clues, which can then be used to complete interrogations. Successfully answering questions leads to more questions, but without the right clues to prompt them, Waffles cannot progress. It’s a lot of fun finding a new clue and realising that an earlier interrogation can now be completed. There is also an inventory, but items are used automatically when interacting with a hotspot rather than being selected manually.

The difficulty is fairly easy when solving each case, whether it’s a murder or a bank robbery; interacting with all hotspots and speaking with every NPC will usually be enough to progress. However, there is also an optional hidden quest that proves to be much more challenging. Figuring out this hidden quest and its puzzles is incredibly fun and rewarding, and I highly recommend putting off reporting to your partner, Pancakes, at the end of each case until you’re certain you’ve completed all of these additional challenges (as they have a knock-on effect from case to case).

The main story is pretty lightweight, but the writing is so strong – and the characters are so well written – that it doesn’t really matter. There are also a few typographical errors, no doubt a byproduct of the game being translated from its native French into English, but they ultimately add to the charm. Exploring Cat Town and interacting with its citizens never gets old, and there is something magical about a full-length adventure being squeezed down into an 8-bit presentation.

My only real criticism is that the ending arrives rather suddenly, and the final case – which I won’t spoil here – is a wonderful change of pace that is nonetheless over before it has really begun. Thankfully, this game actually serves as a prequel to a PC adventure released in 2021 called Inspector Waffles, which was well received at the time of its release. I never played the first game, but that is something I intend to fix after greatly enjoying this low-fi origin story.

Inspector Waffles: Early Days doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel; instead, it’s perfectly happy to look back to the past with a warm sense of humour and a generous dose of nostalgia. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color were great systems that introduced many people to gaming. If you still have your original console hidden in a drawer somewhere, this could be the perfect opportunity to insert some AA batteries and fire it back up.

My DMG-01 Game Boy (which would apparently still work with the Early Days cartridge!) has a very dim screen nowadays, so I opted to play the ROM version on my Anbernic RG35XX handheld emulation device instead. I had a great time! Alternatively, playing the PC version via Steam or GOG will allow you to play on a larger screen with a modern controller. Whatever your poison, you’re sure to have fun.

If you’re a fan of the original Game Boy/Game Boy Color and classic point-and-click adventure games, Inspector Waffles: Early Days is undoubtedly a match made in heaven. It’s incredibly polished for a one-man project, with catchy music, stylish graphics and gameplay mechanics that are surprisingly deep considering only a few buttons are used. To get the most out of it, you’ll need to dig a little deeper and solve the optional puzzles in each case, but it’s well worth the effort. They certainly don’t make them like this anymore – more’s the pity!

8 OUT OF 10

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