I’ve never been the biggest fan of April Fools’ Day, especially when it comes to video game announcements.
Video game April Fools’ jokes run the risk of being something fans actually want, which makes it hurt all the more when it’s just a joke.
Often companies also fall back on announcing a visual novel as an April Fools’ joke, implying the idea of making a visual novel is inherently funny compared to making a “real” game.
But this year, Sega released The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a free game that escapes these pitfalls by being both an actual playable game and one that clearly had effort put into it.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a visual novel with point & click adventure elements, as well as some platforming. You play a new employee on the Mirage Express, a luxury train hosting a birthday party for Amy Rose. The theme of the party is a murder mystery game, and after an unexpected incident on the train, you discover Sonic as the victim, though it hints at the idea that maybe this isn’t just part of the game…
And so, with Tails by your side playing the role of detective, you set out to question suspects and learn the truth.
Gameplay is fairly basic. You visit each location on the train, inspect the area to collect clues, and then confront the other characters with evidence to either support your argument or contradict their claims. It’s fairly simple, with only a small amount of evidence in each area and no penalties for incorrect answers.
One additional gameplay element comes in the form of short platforming sequences where you automatically run along a track and must collect rings while avoiding obstacles. This is justified as you getting your thoughts in order by trying to think like Sonic, so these stages often occur after you’ve presented evidence but before you explain what it proves. The reasoning is silly, but it helps tie it in to the main series. If you’re bad at these sections and would prefer to focus on the other aspects, there are difficulty settings that let you change the speed or the number of rings you need to collect.
They clearly put a lot of work into the game’s presentation, with great character sprites and music, and I was especially happy with the writing. Unlike a lot of joke visual novels, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is genuinely funny, with humorous dialogue as well as some running gags during investigations. As someone who has never gotten into the Sonic series, I feel like fans will probably appreciate the character interactions even more.
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog takes about 2-3 hours to beat. It’s a fun little mystery game that was an entertaining April Fools’ Day surprise.
Yesterday featured both the Level-5 Vision 2023 showcase and a Capcom Spotlight showcase later in the day, so we have quite a few things to talk about.
Level-5 Vision 2023
In Level-5’s showcase, they reiterated their new commitment to releasing all of the games showcased worldwide, in multiple languages.
All are planned for 2023 or 2024 releases (and since everything was given a 2023 window except for Professor Layton, that’s probably a 2024 title).
They started with another trailers for Decapolice, which looks like it should be a lot of fun. A detective investigation game with turn-based combat sounds like it was made for me. They also had a new trailer for Fantasy Life i (the “i” stands for “island,” “Internet,” and “individual”), and while it does look like it has more of an emphasis on customization than the first game did, it still looks like it will follow the original game’s direction. I’d like to see more of the game world beyond the town, but I’m excited.
Next came Megaton Musashi: Wired, a mech game that is an updated re-release of the previously Japan-exclusive Megaton Musashi X.
Then the fourth game Level-5 showed was the one I was waiting for the most, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam (with proper capitalization in its title and logo now). It still feels like a dream that we’re getting a new Professor Layton game, and while the new trailer is short, we do have some more details to work with.
Professor Layton and the New World of Steam is set one year after the events of Unwound Future and features Layton and Luke reuniting in America, in a town called Steam Bison (seriously). No one in America knows who Professor Layton is, while Luke has already solved mysteries there and become known as a detective, so that’s an entertaining way to play with the usual dynamic.
This trailer gives us our first look at Luke, as well as art showing some new characters and steampunk devices.
Curiously, the trailer says, “This time, it seems like the more puzzles you solve, the more the city will develop.” I don’t entirely know what that means, and some fans are worried it will feel less like a Layton game, but I’m intrigued by the potential. What I hope for from that concept is a Professor Layton game that progresses like usual, but earning more picarats and solving optional puzzles makes the city change and grow. The games always have some sort of side mini-game, and I could see city development taking a similar form.
One more detail from this trailer is that the puzzles are being developed by a group called QuizKnock. I’m not familiar with QuizKnock, but a fan on Reddit who follows their content had a lot of praise for them, so that’s the best thing I’ve heard about this new game so far. Layton’s Mystery Journey suffered from both a weak story and weak puzzles, and the puzzles are what I was most concerned about going into a new entry. So although the original Puzzle Master, Akira Tago, is no longer with us, the fact that Level-5 has called in a team of accomplished puzzle designers to work on the new game fills me with much more optimism.
The trailer also claims this adventure will “go beyond your wildest imaginations,” and I sure hope so. After Layton’s Mystery Journey, I want this one to return to form with an intense mystery culminating in an absurdly bizarre twist.
Finally, Level-5 concluded their show with Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. I never got into the Inazuma Eleven series, but this game stood out to me for the past several years as a sign that Level-5 might be in trouble. First announced in 2016 as Inazuma Eleven Ares and expected to release in 2018, it was delayed repeatedly and then renamed to Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes and announced for 2020, only to be delayed multiple times again before being announced for 2023 as Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road of Heroes. Now it looks like it’s finally on track, so I’m happy to see this game escaping its troubled development.
Capcom Spotlight
That was it for Level-5’s show, and then Capcom had a showcase later in the day! Their release dates all leaked ahead of the show, but at least that meant I learned early that Ghost Trick would indeed be getting a release date. The remaster of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective will be out on June 30, and digital preorders are available now.
Preorders also come with some bonus digital content, four backgrounds and two extra music tracks. The game itself features a remastered soundtrack and some other extras.
I love Ghost Trick, so I already preordered. I still wish it was getting a physical release outside of Japan (especially since Japan is getting a special edition), but I’ll absolutely buy a digital copy if that’s what we’ve got, at least to show support.
Now, they said during the pre-show that there wouldn’t be any new game announcements, so I dampened my faint Ace Attorney hopes. Ghost Trick is pretty much all I cared about from the showcase, since I’m not the biggest fan of Resident Evil 4 and therefore didn’t care about the Resident Evil news as much as usual.
(Ace Attorney did appear in the showcase when they announced their upcoming digital theme park to celebrate Capcom franchises, though. Some people think this is a means to sell NFTs. I won’t buy NFTs even for Ace Attorney. I’d much rather spend money on new Ace Attorney games, or perhaps merchandise like these adorable things if they would just please start selling them here.)
Ace Attorney 3DS Closing Sale
But while there wasn’t any Ace Attorney news, we do have reason to discuss Ace Attorney. With the 3DS eShop shutting down on March 27, Capcom put all of their 3DS games on sale, and it’s an even better sale than the last few 3DS sales they’ve had. You can now buy any of the 3DS Ace Attorney games for $2.99 each from now until the eShop closes. The DLC episodes remain $5.99 each, however.
(I picked up Apollo Justice during the last $4.99 sale just to have an extra copy, because I thought that was the best sale it would get.)
I still hope they’ll port the later games to modern platforms, but if you’ve been meaning to get the 3DS games, at least they have one last sale to close out at a great price.
Conclusion
Phew, we ended up with a lot to talk about today. What did you think of Level-5’s showcase and the new Professor Layton news? And are you excited for Ghost Trick getting a release date?
Instead of talking about a single game today, I want to take a look at five short ones.
And by short, I mean short.
Each game on this list can be finished in 15 minutes or less.
So let’s take a look at five bite-sized spooky games you can play in between longer titles!
Grime House
The sole traditional survival horror game on this list is Grime House, a horror game that appears to have been designed in Paint.
You have a top-down view and walk over items to use or interact with them, and you find a gun that lets you engage enemies in simple combat. Although the house you’re trapped in is small, it makes the most of its few environments to set up a classic survival horror gameplay loop of exploring and backtracking to gradually unlock more rooms.
The movement controls occasionally gave me trouble, but overall I had a lot of fun with this one.
10mg: Sealed Estate
Apparently there’s a whole collection of games out there called 10mg, or 10 minute games. One of these titles is a horror game called Sealed Estate. You become trapped inside a mysterious estate, being hunted by an unknown monster, and must find a way out.
The controls are very simple. You can walk and sometimes click things, and you eventually get a flashlight.
It feels more like a puzzle game than anything else, as you need to use your flashlight to get past obstacles (mainly creepy eyes), while scattered notes tell the story. Near the end, the mouse controls stopped working properly for me, which made it frustrating, but overall it was a decent atmospheric experience.
Prison of the Magi: Chapter 0
The next game I played was Prison of the Magi: Chapter 0. This one is a first-person adventure game with cosmic horror themes.
It makes good use of lighting, with a very pretty (although grayscale) visual style. There isn’t much to do in this chapter, though. You collect items, but I couldn’t find any way to do anything with them. Maybe they’re intended to be used in the full game.
Unfortunately, a good portion takes place in a maze. It was annoying, particularly since I managed to reset my progress a couple of times. I’m not sure how the save system works, since it seemed to me hitting the save button never showed any effect, but sometimes it saved and sometimes it didn’t.
According to the demo page for the full game, Prison of the Magi will be an open world horror game, so I don’t think this is one I’ll play.
Vampire Night Shift
On the lighter side of spookiness is Vampire Night Shift, a short game about a vampire working at a convenience store.
It’s designed to look like a Game Boy game, and you can even download a copy to play on a Game Boy emulator.
You walk around, talk to people, and complete simple tasks during your shift, like stocking shelves or helping customers. It’s a cute game. That’s the main appeal here. It’s just cute.
There Are Ghosts In These Stalls
Finally, I checked out a horror game shorter than any other on this list: There Are Ghosts In These Stalls, written for a two-minute horror game jam.
It took me slightly longer, closer to five minutes, but this is a tiny one nevertheless. You are in a haunted bathroom, and your goal is to focus on symbols in order to mark them on the inside of the stall.
Despite its extremely short length and simple premise, it has an unsettling atmosphere that made its ending so much more effective. It’s only a few minutes long, but it got me good in the end.
Conclusion
So if you’re looking for something shorter to play this Halloween season, these are a few you might want to keep in mind. I especially recommend Grime House and There Are Ghosts In These Stalls.
Meanwhile, we do not have Ace Attorney news to take an emergency break for (much to my disappointment), but we should end today with actual legitimate Silent Hill news thanks to a Silent Hill broadcast tonight. I am filled with fear.
And don’t forget that you can win a prize at the end of October just by leaving comments all month long, as explained in the Celebrating All Things Spooky contest rules here!
I’ve never been the biggest fan of April Fools’ Day, especially when it comes to video game announcements.
