Tony Tough and The Night of Roasted Moths

Monday, August 17, 2015

Platforms:	PC
Publisher:	Got Game Entertainment
Developer:	Nayma Software, Prograph Research
Genres:	Adventure / Point and Click
Release Date:	October 31, 2002
Game Modes:	Singleplayer

I suffer from acute rheumatism. Wanna ride?

A bit like aged cheese, Tony Tough gets only better as the years go by, being an unapologetic throwback to the adventure gaming days of Monkey Island or Leisure Suit Larry. And a lot like Larry Laffer is the epitome of the basement-dwelling loser who never seems to get any, so does Tony Tough Private Dick represent the complete opposite of ‘tough’. He’s a wimp, but a lovable one bent on sophomoric humor and frequent bursts of cleverness that you’d almost expect his middle name to be ‘Threepwood’. In his first point and click adventure, Tony investigates the kidnapping of his purple pet dog Pantagruel, which is actually a tapir but whatever.

The graphics aren’t quite as sophisticated as in Curse of Monkey Island, but from a structural puzzle-centric standpoint the two couldn’t be less different. You’ll visit several places along your adventure, the biggest of which is a huge Halloween theme park inhabited by some truly bizarre (if overtly stereotypical) characters. There’s a ton of dialogue, most of it funny, and the quirky characters are actually well worth interacting with if you’re not too busy steamrolling through the puzzles.

But maybe ‘steamrolling’ isn’t the best description. You’ll mostly be carrying puzzle items in double-digit numbers, sometimes needing you to combine stuff and use it on the environment. It can get painfully non-intuitive at times – use several items to dress a trashcan into a ghost so as to distract a clown? Why yes, and how so very intuitive! Ugh, maybe not, but you can wimp out on Easy and just enjoy the humor, which is where the charm is really at.