The crane game and its mechanics aren’t particularly special, in fact most of the minigames in Later Alligator aren’t, at least mechanically. Yet it’s adorable and age appropriate, like a young girl trying to imitate what she’s seen on TV. Even though she’s a kid, her lines read like an overeager version of a stereotypical ’50s gangster, just like everyone else in the city. Since she’s too short to operate the machine, she enlists my aid to run a “heist” on it. One of the first characters I meet is Sweet Geraldine, a little gator girl who has set up shop in front of a crane game in an arcade. The games themselves are as diverse and as silly as the characters who administer them. As each character tells me about themselves, their gesticulating gives way to one of the game’s other core features: a bespoke minigame tailored to each character’s moment in the narrative.Įach of the over thirty family members I run into concede to give up a juicy piece of information if I can complete their unique minigame. The dialogue is sharp, and thick with all sorts of puns and dad jokes. The splendidly silly animations are oozing with character and playful body language. These interactions are where Later Alligator really shines, and I found myself bursting into laughter several times while playing. As I encounter members of Pat’s family, I whip out my notepad to ask them all the same three questions: Who are they, what’s their relationship to Pat, and what do they know about “the event?”
Surprisingly, almost everyone in the city is one of Pat’s relatives. In each section, various citizens are strewn about, going about their day. My investigation takes me all over the different parts of the aptly-named Alligator New York City, from a beautiful park to an area literally called the Unsavory Part of Town. I only have a limited amount of time to meet people in the city, and these meetups act as checkpoints in the story. Throughout my journey, I meet back up with Pat at the hotel suite he booked himself, an annual birthday tradition of his, to give him updates. I have only one day to comb the city, interview his relatives, and find out as much as I can before “the event” takes place. The teen has a complicated relationship with his family, and suspects that his propensity for mishaps at family functions will finally mean his end at this gathering. All I have to go on is Pat’s belief that some tragedy will befall him at a special “event” that he and his entire family have been invited to, which also happens to be on the night of his birthday. My investigation starts off with very few clues. Instead of taking part in a “whodunit” murder plot, I help the still-living youth unravel a possible murder plot against him. While it has everything you’d expect, like straightforward gameplay accented by clever writing, it gives its plucky cast of over thirty characters something special: their own unique minigames.Īs a pinstripe-suit-wearing detective in a version of New York City inhabited by sentient, bipedal alligators, I must help solve a mystery surrounding a young gator named Pat. Later Alligator, out now on Steam, continues the humor-filled legacy of point-and-click mystery games with its own twist.
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