Perhaps it's due to the pressures of modern living, but I've got a soft-spot for harmless, absurdist comedy a mile wide, which is why Later Alligator—out today—has been on my personal wishlist since it was announced. It's a mystery point-and-click comedy adventure about a city full of awkward cartoon alligators. It's produced by visual novel studio Pillow Fight and animation team SmallBü, creators of the endearing, enduring and utterly nonsensical Baman Piderman series on YouTube.
As comedy is subjective, apply mouse clicks to the trailer below until it plays and see if it puts a smile on your face. It even has endorsements from Toby Fox (Undertale), Scott Benson (Night In The Woods), the developer's therapist and "some unsure furries on Twitter". There also appears to be an alligator version of Goro Majima from the Yakuza series in there, who I hope is behaving himself as this is a family friendly game.
Sometimes all you need is a giggle, and from what I've seen of the game (especially anxious and awkward protagonist Pat), this one seems to deliver. The developers claim that there's over 100 alligators to meet and "at least three ghosts", nothing that would upset kids and that there's multiple endings to work towards.
I'm not even sure if the game has puzzles, per se, or just excuses to goof around with weird alligator people and revel in bad puns. Admittedly, either is fine with me. Early adopters on Steam are almost universally positive, but note that it's not especially long. Still, comedy is better when it's to-the-point, or so I reckon.
Later Alligator is out now on Steam and Itch for £11.47/$14.75/€12.29.
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