POSTED 16/7/13


WONDERBOOK: DIGGS NIGHTCRAWLER

Sony

Some worms are dicks.

Diggs Nightcrawler certainly is. He’s a worm, and he’s a detective in this beautifully animated, yet slightly bizarre, collision of classic film noir with nursery rhymes and assorted other random fictional fiction figments.

It’s the second thingy that utilises Sony’s comes-in-any-colour-as-long-as-it’s-blue Wonderbook augmented reality, erm, book, and it does more with the tech than a certain speccy-git wizard’s world (although that was still impressive – just this is impressiver!)

So yeah, you’re the generic ‘kid’ helping Diggs crack a huge Library Town case – that of who bumped off the somewhat Hitchcockian Humpty Dumpty. We won’t bother pointing out what we did using the word “crack” when referring to an egg there, but now we have so, umm... we’re just crap.

Yes, somebody’s bumped off Humpty, so you help icky and slimy, yet immaculately dressed, non-arthropod invertebrate Diggs disentangle the case, see? It’s complicated by three little piggy coppers on Diggs’ tail (not that he has one, he’s more tail-like if anything), see? To this end you’ll pick your Wonderbook up off the floor, slide it, spin it, shift it sideways and use it to steer stuff, see? It really is more than just a book... see? Hence the name ‘Wonderbook’, we s’pose.

Through three brief chapters – we went start to finish in under two hours, and the story’s a tad flabby at times - the sordid tale unfolds. The stuff that the book can do is impressive, although weaknesses in the otherwise impressive tech occasionally show. Replays are required to nab all trophies, adding some (rather dubious) life to proceedings.

While drenched in more noir than a Sisters of Mercy fan convention, this game’s aimed squarely at kids, and should keep them off drugs, red cordial and Bratz dolls for a few hours. That’s gotsta be a goog thing, right toots?

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