Over 10 years after it’s initial release for Windows, Edna and Harvey are breaking out again with a glossy coat of paint. Published and developed by Daedalic Entertainment, and originally made as a university project, the story follows Edna, and her terrycloth rabbit Harvey, as they try to escape an insane asylum.
A point-and-click adventure, the Anniversary Edition is available now on the Nintendo Switch.
Like any point-and-click, you interact with characters and your environment to solve puzzles to assist you in your adventure, with the inclusion of an ability called “Tempomorphing”, which allows Edna to relive parts of her past with Harvey’s help.
The game averages about at about 9 hours to complete, though like any old school point-and-click adventure, a fair chunk of that is taken up by going to and fro to the different locations, as Edna walks quite slowly across the screen, and the puzzles often require you to go to different parts of the map, sometimes in a specific order.
One issue I had with the game is the fact it takes place in an asylum. Insane asylums can be a sore spot for those of us with mental health issues, with the media rarely being kind to those who are mentally ill, especially within this setting. While it may come across as this writer being sensitive, I cringed whenever the patients were referred to as “loonies”.
With questionable setting aside – they were far from the only developers to set their game in an asylum during the 2000s – the game is fun, with interesting characters, intriguing puzzles, and I was eager to play through to the end.
The Anniversary Edition comes with the option to revert the game back to it’s original graphics, which is not only a great addition for fans of the game to play as they remember it, but as a newcomer, it was interesting to see how much had changed, and how close to the original design they tried to stay, while giving it a graphical overhaul.
Point-and-click adventures are great for the Switch, as you can pause whenever your brain needs a break, and relax as you solve the puzzles.
However, this port suffers from an issue as it is no longer able, to well, point. While on a PC, if you need to quickly click on something that is time based, it’s just a simple flick of the wrist and the click of a mouse. On the Switch, there is no cursor, you have options on the screen in different parts of the environment. Your reaction time needs to be swifter, as you move to the correct object in time.
There aren’t many timed objectives, thankfully, and the amount of time is kind, but it is something to be aware of. The issue presents itself more in miss-clicks as you accidently press the wrong object, which can be especially irritating if you accidently press on the exit to the area you need to be in. Or, in my case, a car horn.
Overall, for a game originally released in 2008, the Anniversary Edition is a great way to introduce new players to Edna and Harvey’s escapades, and if you enjoy old-school point-and-click adventures, you won’t be sorry if you add this to your Switch’s library.
