The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle: Episode 1: A Dreadly Business (Nintendo Switch) Review

Join Bertram and his one-eyed assistant, Gavin, in the most spectacular point-and-click adventure ever…to be set in a Victorian London setting, featuring a bad guy called Greg the Murderer, made by a chap named Seb Burnett, and now available on Nintendo Switch. Yes. Beat that!

In all honesty, though, this graphic adventure is actually of the highest calibre, jam-packed with puns that will both make you groan, yet also cause more than a few guffaws along the way. Gorgeous visuals - hideously scary worm-like nose for Bertram aside - and some superb voice acting talent on offer already take The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle a long way. Throw in standard item collection, manipulation and usage from the genre's best, and a supremely intuitive inventory system that makes life a breeze, and suddenly Episode 1: A Dreadly Business starts to stand out from the increasingly expanding crowd.

The light-hearted storytelling vibe aids Bertram Fiddle considerably, and although the idea of chasing after a shadowy character with a mundane name may not grip some, and NPCs in the game are not as developed as perhaps would have been ideal, the humour and charm shine through and will also win over even the most cynical of gamers, in a similar way to how The Adventures of Nick and Willikins stole Cubed3's heart.

This is high quality content, chapter after chapter, with a whole slew of smart puzzles that need people to pay attention, yet do not prove to be overly complex to the point of needing to randomly try every object out on every item of piece of scenery, person around, or even other objects in the inventory. That permutation trial-and-error process plagues so many games of this ilk, so it is indeed wonderfully refreshing not to have to face that in A Dreadly Business.

The only potentially tiresome sections are when the self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Victorian Explorator" must take part in a racing mini-game, first running after someone, and then away from something later on, and players are tasked with pressing up or down to help Fiddle dodge obstacles. However, even those sections are moderately fun thanks to them not out-staying their welcome.