The Wizard Sniffer

5 star: (73) 4 star: (34) 3 star: (6) 2 star: (1) 1 star: (0)

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It just kept getting better., April 2, 2023

I adore the characters, all the twists, and all the interactions. This was possibly one of the text adventures in which I became most attached to its characters—Tuck especially. It's difficult writing this review without any spoilers, but it was a pleasant surprise playing through this, even if my awkward clown brain couldn't figure out what to do next quickly enough at times. It took a while for me to get used to the frustration of not being able to do much by myself due to my form as a pig. The side romance is very cute, by the way. And the ending is unbearably cute. (Spoiler - click to show)Unfortunately rest in war, Ser...

Excellent, March 15, 2023

By far the best game I've played. Was quite stuck at the machine puzzle and had to rely on the transcript. Otherwise, the in-game hints were sufficient. The twist was unexpected (perhaps because I was too engrossed in solving the puzzles), but it blew me away. This was one game I could do without a map. Five stars because it has done very well in both narrative and game design. Thank you!

Humor nose no bounds , December 23, 2021

The Wizard Sniffer is a light-hearted, hilarious romp that subverts just about every fairy tale trope. The puzzles are engaging without being too difficult, and the hint mechanism is quite clever. The ending is very satisfying, and makes me wish for a sequel!

Unique, intriguing, and hilarious, October 20, 2021

This is one of the most entertaining IF games I've played, period. The story isn't overly complicated but it's never boring, and while the "twist" (Spoiler - click to show)that the pig is the princess didn't take me long to figure out, that didn't detract from the experience at all, as enough hints are dropped later in the game that it shouldn't be a surprise by the time it's revealed.

The gist of the game is that you're playing as a pig, and because of that, you are very limited in what you can personally do and need to manipulate the NPCs around you in order to navigate the world. It makes for a completely different kind of gameplay experience and puzzles that are entirely unlike those you find in standard IF games. I enjoyed it immensely.

The characters were a charming mix of standard archetypes and subversions of those same archetypes (Spoiler - click to show)(the brave but dimwitted knight, the cowardly but reliable squire, the evil sorcerer, and the vain prince) and I found myself somewhat invested in their stories. (Spoiler - click to show)I especially enjoyed Tuck and Tristain's awkward friendship, as it defied both hetero and homosexual romantic cliches.

As far as difficulty, this game was on the easier side, but it wasn't so simple that it detracted from my experience personally. I think it is a good game for beginners or players who might often rely on guides and hints to finish games.

TL;DR: Wizard Sniffer is charming, engaging, funny, and doesn't require a huge time commitment. I loved it.

One of the best, June 15, 2021

I've not played many games that had me laughing out loud, but this was one of them. I do wonder if Buster Hudson is a Terry Pratchett fan as many of the jokes reminded me of the Discworld books.
My favourite character by far was Sir Leonhart because of all the ridiculous stuff he does.
I'm not the best at puzzle solving, but I managed to complete it without needing many hints. I checked the Club Floyd transcript a couple of times during play. Once to see if I had encountered a bug, but turns out I was just sniffing slightly the wrong thing. The other time I felt I was wandering round in circles not sure where to go next.
I only realised the game even has built-in hints when I read what lies behind the spoiler tags in reviews on here after finishing it. I might replay it just to see what they're like.
The limited set of commands is a brilliant idea, and made perfect sense since you're a pig. I would argue that it made puzzles a bit more easier to solve as well because there could be no cases of guess the verb.
Speaking of puzzles, my favourite is the (Spoiler - click to show)vending machine. I thought I was going to be there for days trying to work out how to get leonhart to press the right switches, least of all figuring out myself what it all meant. I'm not a fan of complex contraption puzzles in IF. But no, all I needed to do was get the gallant knight to do what he does best. Smash! Fantastic.
I loved the twist, and the message. I don't want to say much about it, other than that it could have been poorly handled, but it wasn't.
It's been a couple of weeks since I played it, so I've probably forgotten what else I wanted to say. So all I will say is stop reading my waffle and go and play it. :)

Not-princesses all around!, June 4, 2021

It all begins with a rather awkward protagonist to control: a pig (which can alledgedly sniff out wizards...) Since pigs walk on four feet and have no opposable thumbs, a lot of commands are thrown out the window by nature of the PC. And although pigs are known to be very clever animals by those who study them (pigycists?), this particular pig does seem to rise even above normal intelligence levels of other members of the species Sus scrofa. For one thing, it can read...

Seeing that this smart pig is somewhat limited in the handiness department, it must find other ways to further its goals. Cue NPCs. By virtue of an excellent grasp of human psychology, our protagonist-pig can manipulate the other characters into following it around and it nudges them to interact with objects or other characters through very deliberately SNIFFing of pieces of the surroundings. Different characters will act upon this sniffing in different ways, according to their nature.

One of the pig's major ways to solve puzzles is therefore to choose the right NPC to come along and do the hands-on work. Instead of switching between PCs with their special abilities, here our pig-protagonist has to switch between NPC accomplices. The way this is handled in-game is both elegant and hilarious.

The puzzles flow seamlessly from the story and the setting. Some of them are pig-adjusted variations on standard adventure-fare, while others are truly surprising and original.

The writing is fresh and crisp, with a truly great comedic touch. There is lots of physical slapstick comedy, but at least as much of the humour comes from the pig's observations of the humans. Our pig always keeps a certain distance and so can easily see through the notions about identity the NPCs have about themselves.

Through these observations and the development of the story, what started as a laugh-out-loud comedy evolves into a character-driven drama by the finale. The Aesop that becomes clear near the end could have been cliché and heavy-handed, but the lightness and subtlety of the writing lifts it far above a finger-waving moral-of-the-story.

Truly one of the greatest games I have ever played.

A fresh take on fantasy, March 25, 2021

This witty puzzle game has such a unique charm! As others have pointed out, the humor is reminiscent of monty python or Blackadder, but the jokes don't come at the expense of the emotional heart of the story. There were many moments that made me gasp or laugh out loud while playing. The dialogue is well-written, the puzzles are clever, and the entire premise feels like a fresh take on the genre.

Hysterical telling of a sweet story, with fun puzzles to boot, October 16, 2020

I introduced my partner to IF with this game, not quite knowing what to expect. I haven't played much since the 90s, and I wasn't sure what they would make of it. It was an excellent choice.

The writing is clear and dryly funny. Room descriptions are shown once in full, and then it cuts to the chase. The limited verb set avoided any scramble to satisfy the parser. What's more, the constrained parser serves the story in both shallow and deep ways.

The puzzles were just difficult enough to be fun without ever shutting us down---we resorted to hints just a few times, and the hint system is as well integrated into the story as everything else. Relatedly, there are no "dead-ends": you can't make a choice so wrong that you'll be stuck, and you can always UNDO to get back to where you were. What could be bad?

A true joy to play!, October 1, 2020

One of the best games I've ever played. It was fun, a good length without overstaying its welcome, light-hearted and humorous while still being challenging. Loved how it seemed like a goofy game at first, but then you discovered there was more to the story than it first appeared. The interaction between the characters, and how you could switch which one you were "controlling" was clever and I loved how the limited verb set didn't feel too easy.

One of the few IF games that I know I'll play-through again for the shear enjoyment of it.

ADDENDUM: As of the 10/01/20 this is still my favorite IF piece of all time.

Discworld lite, November 28, 2017

A light-hearted, funny adventure, reminding me sometimes of Discworld, and sometimes of classic cartoons in its use of traditional humor tropes (hammy hero (and I don't mean the pig), wacky chases, crossdressing, etc.) The game world may seem a little intimidating at first with its many rooms, but the puzzles are simple and satisfying enough (the way you deal with the (Spoiler - click to show)vending machine is good for a laugh).

Most controversially, near the end the game takes a detour from pure comedy into social commentary on things such as gender roles and LGBT issues, and these parts feel a little grating; you might enjoy the ending less or more, depending on how you feel about that kind of lecturing. The finale feels a bit underwhelming, but one tiny detail I loved was (Spoiler - click to show)tasting the label-switched potions alluded to throughout the game, their effects hinting towards how each and every transformation in the castle had happened.

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