It’s time to get ship shape and fancy free in the piratical point and click comedy, Nelly Cootalot and the Fowl Fleet. Does it fly high or is it just nautical nonsense?
You may be forgiven for thinking that Nelly Cootalot is yet another game riding on the 30 year-old coattails of Guybrush and co. But the only similarities I can find are the fact that they both deal with pirates. Our heroine Nelly is a redheaded Geordie lass with gumption, grit and literal ineptitude. No game I’ve played in the past few years has had me laughing out loud as much as Nelly. And this is all down to both developer Alasdair Becket-King, who is a professional comedian, and his partner, Nelly’s voice actress, also, apparently called Nelly Cootalot! The northern accent added together with Alasdair's comedy chops makes for an unforgettable heroin.
It’s a fairly comical plot too. Captain Bloodbeard, who is our mentor and just happens to be a ghost, tells us of another pirate, Baron Widebeard, who is planning on seeking out secret treasure and in doing so has hypnotised all the birds. Hence the title The Fowl Fleet. The evil harbour master Van Zandt also sticks his oar in and tries to ruin Nelly’s day too. It’s basically a plot to dangle brilliant one liners from as ridiculous characters are stacked up one by one. For a start there’s our sidekick Sebastian, the bird, voiced by Doctor Who legend Tom Baker. A few puzzles require us to utilize him and he’s also a great sounding board for if we get stuck. He’s available on the majority of screens for hints and the hints given are clear and precise, to the point where he pretty much tells us what to do. The cast of characters mainly serve as a conduit for a single puzzle and I think every character you interact with is helpful in one way, then they’re done, except for on a small handful of occasions. The majority of characters also come at the game from a comedy angle, and it works. It’s a very funny game.
There’s a healthy amount to do in the game too, and it leaves it up to us to decide in what order to do it. It feels like it’s split into three or four sections, with each section having several puzzles in it to progress. For the most part the tasks at hand lead us to do one of three or four things. For example we have to convince the Mayor of a town to give us a pass to leave the location, but he wants us to go and do three things first. It’s up to us in which order we do these tasks, or trials. The Three Trials! (OK so there may be a little more Monkey Island in this than first seems). A large part of the game is set in this small town with it’s buccaneering inhabitants, and so it’s really handy to have a map to fast track from one side of the island to the other. Kudos.
The classic point and click puzzles are on the easier side of things but there are one or two more niggly ones that had me hunting around a little, but there’s nothing here that could stump you and leave you randomly trying objects on things. There is an inventory and it’s nicely tucked away at the bottom of the screen, which leaves plenty more room for us to investigate on screen. There’s never more than around 10 things we carry so there’s little room for being overwhelmed with ‘stuff’.
Alongside the point and click puzzles, there are a handful of mini games and these I feel can be hit or miss. The shooting range was fun, as was working out a riddle involving shipping docks, but the claw machine and Operation games were a tad tedious. Still, the good outweighs the bad here.
It’s described itself as a hand drawn game, and it’s a beautiful, charming look. I’m no techie but there are definite touches of 3d in there too. Perhaps 2.5d? Whatever it is, it was a colourful bright delight. Musically there are one or two funny songs included and if you want to know the entire plot, just head straight to the credits as it pretty much spells it out for us, in song form!
I must state also, and I wasn’t aware of this before I started playing, that this is, in fact, a sequel. You definitely don’t need to have played the first game, Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy (which you can pick up for less than £2 on steam) but it does reference past events half a dozen times or so.
I’m delighted I played Nelly Cootalot The Fowl Fleet as it was a belly laugh of a game all the way through. I adore Nelly and her dry candid replies, her Northern gab and the journey she embarks on. What a hoot.
Get yourself a copy of Nelly Cootalot The Fowl Fleet from Humble. If you buy it from here it helps out both the developer, charity and myself and costs you nothing extra.
Thanks also so Application Systems Hiedleberg for the review copy of the game.
Finally, come over and join hundreds more point & click fans in my dedicated Facebook group The Point & Click Adventurers!
Michael
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