RPG Time: The Legend of Wright review for Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox, PlayStation

Here?s a criticism I don?t usually have for games: RPG Time: The Legend of Wright is a little too inventive.

Obviously, as complaints go, that?s not a bad one. It?s probably better for a game to have too many ideas than to have not enough ? and make no mistake, The Legend of Wright is overflowing with ideas.

It?s just that all those ideas have a tendency to get in the way of each other. One minute in The Legend of Wright you?re playing Whack-A-Mole, the next you?re gathering worms, the next you?re playing Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, and still the next you’re playing baseball. Elements of bullet hell shmups sit alongside JRPG gameplay, and both of them intermingle with point-and-click adventure gaming and racing.

There?s a lot going on in this game ? which kind of makes sense when you consider that the in-game story is that the game was created by a 10-year-old. Kids generally aren?t known for being able to keep their focus on one thing for extended periods of time, so from that perspective, it would stand to reason that a game created by one bounces from idea to idea.

But that doesn?t make it pleasant to play. While on some level it?s fun to play something where you?ll never get bored because it never stays on one topic long enough for that to happen, at a certain point you kind of wish The Legend of Wright would stay on one thing for longer than a few minutes and stop being so hyperactive. (And yes, I realize how old I sound saying that.)

It also doesn?t help that the 10-year-old is really annoying. Again, I know that kids love talking, and it can be a delight to hear them talk about random subjects at length, but in the case of The Legend of Wright, it detracts from the gameplay. You do something for a moment or two, then the narrator feels the need to chime in with his comments. It doesn?t matter where you are in the game, he can?t help but tell you his thoughts, taking you out of the flow of the game as you work your way through the extra text.

The other flaw in The Legend of Wright is that there?s no obvious way to save or quit the game. Auto-saving works well enough, I guess, but at the same time, you never can tell exactly when it kicks in, which means you sometimes lose your spot because you can?t tell if the game has saved what you?ve just done.

But if you?re okay with that uncertainty, and really okay with crazy hyperactivity, I could totally see why someone would love RPG Time: The Legend of Wright. It?s a love letter to gaming ? as in, a love letter to almost every genre you can think of ? and it?s designed to look like someone drew it up in a notebook, which only adds to the charm. It?s all over the place, but if you want something unlike anything else, this is the game you?re after.

Aniplex provided us with an RPG Time: The Legend of Wright Switch code for review purposes.