Hand-drawn video game Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective on Switch is fun

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It feels like you’re playing a living Where’s Wally book in this unqiue indie video game.

You play as a young detective called Pierre in the French-themed title and the story is all about you chasing and catching the nefarious Mr X across elaborate cityscapes.

Publisher Pixmain has teamed up with independent animation and development studio Darjeeling to produce an amazing looking hand-drawn game that gives a total Where’s Wally feel.

The title is based on the international hit comic books ‘Pierre the Maze Detective’ by Japanese artist Hirofumi Kamigaki and illustration studio IC4Design.

Players step into the shoes of the street smart sleuth on the trail of his devious rival across the intricate hand-coloured world.

The mazes themselves are vast and reminded us of a Where’s Wally book

The result is a series of ‘go to here’ tasks across increasingly large and difficult mazes as you hunt Mr X.

The opening stage gives you four people to find, each one gets more difficult to plot a course too and you’ll find yourself in later levels scratching your head as you try to walk the maze ahead.

It’s top-down, pen drawn and colour packed. The many characters blocking your way move and interact with you.

It builds up a wonderful sense of being within a book.

Each level gives a very different looking map

And there are collectibles to find if you go off the beaten track, there’s nothing quite like finding that tricky third star on a level to complete the set.

That in turn gives the game some replayability after what is quite a linear main run.

Labyrinth City is fun, puzzley at points and packed full of chuckle moments as you dissect the lovely world around you.

The level of detail is huge and there are lots of surprises to discover

But the game is a bit of a one-trick pony and it won’t be too long before you tire and move on to another Switch game.

At just under £11 it is well priced and its difference will be enough to pique the interest of indie game lovers.

Give it a go.

VERDICT 3/5

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