Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet (Android) Review

By Brandon (Michael) Howard 26.02.2017

Review for Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet on Android

Point-and-click adventure games might be a genre that's been steadily losing ground for a few years, but there's still some odd gems here and there, and Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet is a bit of an undiscovered treasure. A follow-up to a little-known 2007 adventure game, Nelly brings her charm to her second ever game courtesy of a successful Kickstarter campaign, and it's definitely got all the marks of a swashbuckling adventure. After coverage of the PC and iOS versions, Cubed3 now reviews it on Android.

Pirates compete at the top levels for being pop-culture's go-to adventurer career, but Nelly's not the average pirate. Rather than stake her claim as captain of a ship, she's a bit more, humanitarian in her efforts. Not to say that she doesn't bend and break the rules now and then, but on the whole, she's in it for the adventure, not the plunder.

The experience is very reminiscent of LucasArt's old Monkey Island games, in that it's a very laid-back adventure set to the backdrop of a high-seas tale. The stakes never feel earthshattering, and there's no way to become locked out of any puzzles or quests. The puzzles themselves can definitely require some thought to solve, but they definitely have a more logical element to them rather than the tired adventure game mantra of "bash two items together and hope they solve this puzzle."

Screenshot for Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet on Android

Controls are the biggest thing hampering this adventure. The touchscreen interface is extremely picky, often requiring multiple taps to select the object Nelly needs to look at, or instead, sending her off to stand next to the object instead. It's makes the gameplay completely unsuited to a mobile phone, and better with a Bluetooth mouse on a tablet, but still playable aside from that.

The real treat is the writing and voice overs, which are honestly both extremely endearing. The lines just flirt with being culturally savvy, but not in a way that totally takes you out of the storytelling. The voice-acting offers some great delivery to the lines, which there's a veritable mountain of. It does get annoying to hear the same lines over and over while trying to solve a puzzle, but that's more of an edge case than anything.

Stylistically, though, everything ties together. The character models are all full of life, and the animations are impressively fluid for an Android title. The soundtrack offers a nice background to the puzzles, and it all makes for a very pleasant, if not sometimes frustrating experience.

Screenshot for Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet on Android

Cubed3 Rating

7/10
Rated 7 out of 10

Very Good - Bronze Award

Rated 7 out of 10

Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet is roguishly charming, but the mobile inputs definitely leave a bit to be desired. The writing is top notch, with an exceptional mix of intrigue and humour, and the puzzles are logical and well thought out. The biggest complaint that can really be levied at this swashbuckling adventure is the slowness of the on-screen movements and lack of quicker travel options, but otherwise, it's the perfect story to take to the seas with.

Developer

Alasdair Beckett-King

Publisher

Application Systems Heidelberg

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  7/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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