Review by: Neilie Johnson

Indie game development is often a labor of love, especially when it goes against all logic to create a niche-genre title. Point-and-click adventure fan Andrew Goulding and his small Australian dev team are out to prove their dedication to old school adventure games with Jolly Rover.

Jolly Rover's whimsical pirate setting makes its homage to LucasArts' Monkey Island series immediately apparent. With a cast of old sea dogs (literally—the characters are all dogs), the game tells the story of wannabe professional clown turned professional pirate, Gaius James Rover. Rover's in the middle of delivering a shipment of a special pirate drink called “Jolly Rover” to the governor of Groggy Island when he's attacked by pirates. He's taken prisoner and in a start very reminiscent to that of the Curse of Monkey Island, he must find his way off the ship and ultimately, to Groggy Island.

Jolly Rover embraces the classic point-and-click style of gameplay which involves moving and interacting by clicking with the mouse. Interactive items are shown with labels above them; blue labels if clicking can make something happen, white ones if nothing more can be done. Early on, you encounter a parrot named Juan who becomes your advisor and hint-meister. In exchange for crackers (found hidden all over the environments) he'll give you hints about what you should do next and how you should do it. Crackers might seem like a strange thing for a pirate to be looking for and collecting but you'll also be digging up more appropriately piratey things like pieces of eight and pieces of pirate flag, both of which unlock things like songs and concept art. Jolly Rover rewards exploration not only by unlocking extras, but by awarding points which grant ranks (from Lily-Livered Landlubber to Pirate Captain) and by handing out achievements.

While the game's definitely entertaining, gamers may see it as too dependent on Monkey Island-style gameplay, humor and storytelling. It adopts the exact same kind of silly optional dialog choices, sly commentary, voodoo references and puzzle structure—there's even one puzzle that involves a monkey. In addition to perhaps seeming too derivative, the game's artwork while competent, lacks the charm of the Monkey Island games. The main character in particular, wiener dog James Rover, just isn't as appealing as he could be. (Maybe it's that short, rubbery limbs just aren't very heroic?)

On the upside, Jolly Rover does a solid job of recreating classic adventure-style play and even improves upon it by eliminating some of its inherent frustration. Even fans of the Monkey Island games will have to admit they probably got completely stuck at one point, on a particularly nonsensical Monkey Island puzzle. Jolly Rover solves this issue in two ways—by having an onscreen quest objective that always lets you know what you're meant to be doing, and by having a built-in hint system that gives you as much or as little help as you need. On top of that, the writing is really pretty good. Yes, the game could be seen as “Monkey Island with dogs”, but it succeeds in creating that same kind of humor and is funny enough to make you laugh out loud in some places. What helps the writing succeed is the voice acting, which across the board is very well done.

Ultimately, Jolly Rover is a funny, well made adventure game. With a play time of roughly four hours, its $19.99 price tag is admittedly a bit on the high side. Even so, the game does offer considerable entertainment value and deserves a look.