Welcome to our review of Her Majesty’s Spiffing. A Brexit inspired game out now on Nintendo Switch!
In the wake of political developments during the Summer of 2016 and the events that followed, Britain found itself increasingly isolated from global society. Frustrated by the demise of this once great nation Her Majesty the Queen concluded that the elected representatives at Westminster were no longer fit to govern her United Kingdom.
Having dissolved parliament, returning the United Kingdom to an autocratic government, improvements were immediate and wide-ranging. However, ever the pragmatist, Her Majesty concluded that given the complications Britain was facing returning to a position of power on earth, perhaps it was time to focus her attention elsewhere…
Establishing S.P.I.F.F.I.N.G. (Special Planetary Investigative Force For Inhabiting New Galaxies) Her Majesty has turned to the stars in a bid to establish a new, Galactic British Empire!
Assuming command of the near-futuristic space ship HMSS Imperialise and her crew (distinguished veteran and gentleman Captain Frank Lee English and Aled, his mild-mannered South Walean colleague) YOU will venture into the cosmos, solving puzzles, engaging in witty banter, deal with crippling claustrophobia, gradually succumb to the sustained exposure of cosmic radiation and so on, all for Queen and Country.
You start off on your quaint little adventure at the helm of your spacecraft. You, Captain English, are the main player in this game and you are in for quite the adventure. This game is a classic Point and Click game but in such a way, that is spans more than just the single screen as most games of this genre. You walk around the spacecraft at first just trying to get yourself a jolly ol’ cup of tea. Once you get one for yourself, you need to get one for your crewmate Aled as well. Once you get him his as well, this is where you take the helm.
You obviously mess up causing Aled to spill his tea onto the dashboard which will really start your adventure. Going from fetching a new control option for the helm to figuring out what that cat litter is doing in outer space and why you can not seem to go down below deck.
As the genre stands, it is pretty much the same for any and all point and click games, you walk around, be it slowly, find what you need, put it in your pouch and from there on, solve puzzles.
The game however does excel in a very specific way. The voice actors perform such a great job in conveying the subtle and not so subtle jokes as the text is really what makes this game stand out for me. I generally do enjoy point and click games, but they tend to be rather bland and this game was anything but.
My only gripe with the game was that our beloved Captain English seemed a bit sluggish walking around and I would have loved for him to be a lot quicker or just more fluid in his movements. If you play the game and try to sit down for example, you see the need for your character to first move into a very specific location before the sitting down animation begins. While it does not prevent you from having fun or anything, it is a little annoying at times, but really, it is a small gripe and nothing serious.
One thing I really did enjoy, how the menus were built up, a strange remark to make, but for a game without any form of tutorial, it was always clear from the start what to do and how. At one point I needed batteries to make a device work, when I went into my pouch. I instantly had the option to combine both device and batteries and voila, the animation did the rest for me. A very handy and welcomed feature as other games in the genre often do have more elaborate or complicated menus, this game did it just right!
In conclusion, in the end, this is still a point and click game which will only bring about a couple of hours of gameplay. Not the big action game or platforming marvel. This game gets all its balls and glory from the outstanding screenplay involved in the game on top of some very nice animations, aside from the previously mentioned gripe. If you are looking for a game that will make you laugh out loud several times, I can highly recommend this little gem and therefore I am rating this spiffy game at 80%.
