Dropsy

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Dropsy is a Graphic Adventure released on PC and mobile devices in 2015 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022. In this game, players take the role of the titular Dropsy, a grotesque, overweight clown still haunted by a lethal fire that burned down his circus, and who is now looking to find some happiness in his life, evidently by hugging everyone and everything, and also solving pretty traditional Graphic Adventure-style Puzzles.

For those who are triggered by clowns, Dropsy is likely going to be nightmare fuel for you – not only is Dropsy himself pretty freakish, but the game has some really creepy imagery, even kicking the game off with a chilling nightmare sequence. This game may only have a “T for Teen” rating, but I would go as far as to say this game is likely to be more upsetting for kids than a lot of M-rated games.

I suppose, to the game’s credit, there’s some good animation here, even though the 2D art style and color palette can often look like something puked up by… well, by a clown. This is backed by an atmospheric soundtrack, and joined by a lot of mumbly noises as characters “speak”.

That leads me to one of this game’s bigger eccentricities, and one that’s likely to cause problems with many players. Characters in Dropsy do not speak in any sort of intelligible language, and players must instead decipher what characters are saying based on the images and symbols that pop up in their speech bubbles. Often, these visual indicators will be vague, making it difficult to decipher exactly what you’re meant to do.

Another issue here is that this game doesn’t identify “hot spots”, meaning it’s one of those “point and click”-style games that forces you to click on everything to see if you can interact with it. To the game’s credit, it does allow players to make use of the touchscreen, but then I have to take some of that credit away again because starting the game in docked mode caused my controllers to turn off and wouldn’t let me reconnect them until I took the Nintendo Switch briefly into portable mode again before re-docking it again. Odd.

I can be fair and admit that a good amount of my dislike for Dropsy is its unsettling aesthetic, which I know is a matter of personal preference. However, even beyond that, this is a game that has some outdated Graphic Adventure gameplay problems, control issues, and an unnecessarily confusing picture-based speech system that makes it even harder to know what you’re meant to do. More seasoned fans of the genre looking for a creepy take on the genre may enjoy this, but most players are better off sticking with one of the numerous better games in the genre on Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Dropsy is a Graphic Adventure where players take the role of a freakish clown looking to hug everyone and spread happiness… while giving the players a healthy dose of nightmare fuel with the game’s creepy imagery. Beyond the presentation that not everyone will like, Dropsy suffers from multiple other issues, including some poor design choices and control issues. More skilled fans of Graphic Adventures may find this game’s presentation unique enough to give it a go, but most players are better off sticking with other entries in the genre.

Grade: C-

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