Genre: Adventure    

Developer & Publisher: Smallthing Studios/ININ              

Released: October 27, 2025               

Requirements: OS: Windows 10

Processor: 2.5 - 3.0 Ghtz

Memory: Minimum 8 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia GTX Series + (2 GB)

Storage: 5 GB available space

By flotsam

Smallthing Studios / ININ

Despite having boxed copies in my collection, I have never played the original games, so can't tell you how this compares. It does though feel like a game from that era (the first game came out in 1993), albeit spruced up to today's standards, so well done on that count.

[Time out – I did apparently play Simon 5 from 2009, and reviewed it here with Becky. It seems fair to say I much preferred this one.]

Self described as “both the ideal way to begin the saga for newcomers and a faithful return to the franchise for long-time fans” this is a prequel, something the game itself tells you about 30 minutes in. Set “just weeks” before the original 1993 events, it starts with Simon moving into a new house in a current world environment, although he quickly finds himself in a whole other place, be-decked in wizards robes and tasked to enter the Magic Academy. An ancient prophecy and saving the world loom large, but getting back home is his primary goal.

There is clearly a lot of heart in this game, as well as a deep fondness for the point-and-click games of the 90s and the Simon games in particular. Which on occasions might have you yearning for more direction, but games of the 90s aren’t Robinson Crusoe in that regard.

Familiar point-and-click tribulations stand in Simon’s way. He will gather a lot of items and do an interesting array of things with those items, some of which I would never have thought of. He will combine some of them, and transform others with the help of two special wizardy hats he will acquire. He will do fetch and carry tasks, talk to an array of people, and traipse back and forth, sometimes knowing where he is going and sometimes just in the hope of finding something that might move him forward. Familiar, as I said.

He will also learn a small number of spells throughout the game, which are part and parcel of various conundrum solutions as well as for the end-game ‘battle’. They sit neatly on the top left corner of your inventory ribbon, your special wizardy hats sitting separately in the right corner. Its very well organised, and while you might have to scroll your inventory items to find the one you want, your spells and hats are always right there and readily accessible.

Which will be useful in that aforesaid battle.

Puzzling is predominantly inventory based, although there are a few straight out puzzles. Conversations can also be important in order to trigger events, so be willing to talk to everyone about every available topic. The tab button will highlight hotspots which will help to find things, and a small array of icons will indicate what you can do at any particular spot. Don’t forsake the ‘look’ icon in favour of the ‘take’ one, as looking can sometimes result in objects being found and then taken.

You will find a map to which pins will be added for locations you can fast travel to (their depiction in the ‘real world’ is a bit of fun), and while it will help with the back and forth I thought it could have done with some more pins. Even Simon comments at times that he will need to speak to the level designer as a he navigates an overly long sequence.

Simon does enjoy breaking that fourth wall, and he has a sarcastic wisecracking way about him. Voiced by the original Simons (in both the English and German language versions), while not everything hit the mark I rather enjoyed the banter, whether it be conversational or observational.

The game plays in the third person, and has a hand drawn story-book watercolour aesthetic about it. It is all voiced, and ambient sound is underpinned by a musical score. There is a jaunty vibe about the whole thing. At one stage late in the game you get to play another character, but apart from that its all Simon. Point and click to move, double click to run, and game screens can slide left and right and occasionally forward or back. Your inventory is in your hat, an icon which sits bottom left, and which can be accessed via the mouse or a keyboard command. Ditto certain other aspects (e.g., the map). The Esc key brings up the menu, and while it autosaves, you can also save at will.

The boss battle at the end might frustrate, not because it is terribly hard, but because it involves about five separate sequences, which if you fail at any point makes you start again. And there will likely be times where you are wandering with no clue as to what comes next, or what to do. I certainly was, but as I tend to do with these sorts of games I had a walkthrough close at end, which I used to keep things moving along and which is how I like to play. You can factor that into my thoughts as you see fit.

Which in summary was that I rather enjoyed my time with Simon.  

I played on:

OS: Windows 11, 64 Bit

Processor: Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz

RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB

Video card: AMD Radeon RX 580 8192MB

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