Game: Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle, Indie
System: Steam (Nintendo Switch date TBC)
Developers | Publishers: Darjeeling | Pixmain
Price: US $9.95 | UK £10.79 | EU € 9,95
Controller Support: No, Keyboard & Mouse
Release Date: June 22nd, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Homerun PR
Pierre the Maze Detective is a series of children’s books created by Japanese artist Hirofumi Kamigaki and illustrated by IC4Design. Double spread books that paint elaborate sceneries where kids and adults try to help the titular Pierre through a number of twisting mazes. If you’re familiar with Where’s Waldo or Wally and the Professor Layton series, the Pierre books are similar in art style.
Developer Darjeeling are big fans of the Pierre the Maze Detective series. So they’ve partnered up with publisher Pixmain to adapt and bring the series to life in video game form in Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective.
Become a Detective
The infamous Mr X has stolen the Maze Stone, a magical artefact, which has the power to turn the whole of Opera City into a maze. Oh no, that can’t be allowed to happen, or has it already happened since the whole place is a maze already? Anyway, in this adventure puzzle game you will be challenged with tracking down the elusive villain Mr X in an effort to save the day.
You take on the role of Pierre, a young detective and the chase after Mr X begins. A chase that will see you running through glorious, highly detailed maze levels. Along with chasing the dastardly Mr X, throughout each maze level. You’ll also see eccentric characters, animations and interactions with NPC’s and witness some unusual occurrences.
Lost in the Maze
As you follow after Mr X you never quite know what you’re going to see next. Like a Ninja who is scared of heights, who is after bagging the three golden stars in each level that you are to collect. Giraffes popping their heads out of wooden chests, and watch out for the polar bear who makes an appearance on every level. There are dinosaurs perched high atop buildings, knights in shining armour, and talking statues to name a few.
Treasure to Find
Along with the three gold stars to find there are other things to keep an eye out for. You’ll need to be on the lookout for four treasure chests containing trophies placed somewhere on each level. Many NPC’s in among the crowds will draw your attention as you move through the maze.
It pays to stop and talk to them as they might give you one of the four clues you have to find. There is a lot of humour in the game, from jokes being told by the NPC’S, to lots of visual humour to observe and all of it makes Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective a very enjoyable game to play.
Mini-games included
Often you’ll come across a small mini-game to take part in. Take part in a mini-game of blowing up balloons to see who can blow up the biggest one without it bursting. Or take part in a match the pairs game, high in the rooftops of Opera City.
The labyrinth mazes aren’t too difficult to traverse and if you do get lost help is at hand. Dotted in the mazes are NPC’s who look like wizards. If you chat with them they will kindly conjure up an arrow that points to the correct way to go. By keeping an eye on your surroundings there are lots of other indicators pointing to the right way to go.
Visuals and Sounds
Labyrinth City creates ten visually stunning areas for you to explore, it really is a treat for the eyes. The area’s you travel through from the Museum to the city streets, even a castle in the sky, and a haunted mansion are just some of the areas to see. In each hand-crafted area of the game that represents the double spread pages of the book, everything is highly detailed.
It looks bright and very colourful, the forest area is particularly stunning, though I’d be hard-pressed to pick a favourite area as they are all amazing. The music and sound effects are perfect and really help make the game entertaining.
Controls and More
The game performed very well on my laptop and as I’ve said it looks amazing on the screen. My only gripe with the game is you can’t zoom out to view the level as a whole. The controls are keyboard and mouse at the moment, though I did use my controller to play the game and it did work well.
There is a planned release for the game for Nintendo Switch, but no solid release date as yet. As it looks so well on a bigger screen, I’m wondering how all of that intricate detail is going to look on the much smaller Switch screen, we will have to wait and see.
Conclusion
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective is a fantastic game that perfectly represents the books it is based on. An amazing and delightful game to play with young children with the family gathered around the computer screen. In saying that, it is not exclusive as a family game, I played the game on my own and had a blast with it, so it is suitable for all ages to play and enjoy. I highly recommend becoming Pierre the detective and join the hunt for Mr X.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up 