I Played Thimbleweed Park in One Sitting Yesterday

Ever have those games where you are actually pretty excited about them, but by the time they actually release you have way too much already in your backlog that you just tell yourself “I’ll buy that game later” but then completely forget about it entirely?

This was Thimbleweed Park for me. I’ve only played a few Adventure Games in the past, but it was never really a game genre that was on my radar much. I had always heard about Maniac Mansion and how crazy it was, but I still haven’t had the chance to play it. After watching the Kick Starter video for Thimbleweed Park, some of Maniac Mansion’s Alumni being apart of it, I was all about it. I loved the look of it, and the idea of exploring this weird ass town that gave me Twin Peaks vibes, I really wanted to play it.

The point-and-click game felt like it would be perfect for the Nintendo Switch. This is what I wanted to buy the game on, so I waited for the release for that version. By the time it eventually released, I had completely forgotten about it. Fast forward to yesterday. I found out that Thimbleweed Park was released onto Xbox Game Pass, and I immediately downloaded and booted it up.

Thimbleweed Park is a absolute roller coaster of a game. It seems to start off seemingly with a straight forward murder mystery, as you play as two separate agents Ray and Reyes. Turns out that nothing is what it seems, everything is fucking weird as hell, and the story goes where you would of never thought it would go.

These point-and-click adventure games rely heavily on their ability to make puzzles that make complete sense, but still have totally weird solutions. I’ll be honest, I had to use a guide a handful of times to figure out what the hell I was suppose to do. Like starting a fire in a fireplace, picking up the soot, getting a glass of water and making ink out of it. I honestly would have never figured something like that out on my own. That might be a completely simple puzzle for veterans of the genre, but definitely not for me.

Every character in Thimbleweed Park are all different in their own way, and are all enjoyable to talk to. Especially all 5 characters you can control. They all have backstories and flashbacks that give you more of an idea of who you are playing as. Ransom the Clown was probably my favorite. He curses a ton and when you make him hold things he get’s super annoyed by it and it’s great.

I don’t want to spoil much about this game. The story is really enjoyable, the puzzles feel great and rewarding when you figure them out, and I guarantee you won’t see the multiple twists that come in the story. My only complaint is that it is absolutely not optimized for consoles. It would be much better on the Switch, or even PC and Mobile.

Having to using the joystick as the cursor was a bit of a pain, but seeing how I played through the entire 10 hours all in own sitting (minus an hours for lunch) the game was engaging and just overall great. Please do not sleep on Thimbleweed Park. We need more Adventure Games like it.

PS You have to collect all those specks of dust. You have to.