imaginarylab, the developer and publisher behind the well-received 2020 point-and-click adventure ‘Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town’ is back with new game ‘Whirlight: No Time To Trip’, which was released recently. Another addition to the point-and-click genre, the game is a humour-filled time-travelling experience that puts gamers in the shoes on not one, but two larger-than-life characters. The games opens with you taking control of Hector, an inventor who is having a feverish dream in a land that features a giant frog and plenty of nods to Dali.
The game wastes no time introducing its humour, which is plentiful, and once you work your way through the opening dream, you’re thrust into 1960s Italy in a place called Verice Bay. Having successful navigated through a bizarre dream sequence, Hector must search his town to find the items he needs for a new invention. Along the way, as is par for the course in point-and-click adventures, you meet a colourful cast of characters that you can chat to and often must exchange something with.
Hector’s mad genius makes him an interesting character to play and early puzzles include trying to release your Moka Pot from a bubble floating around in your apartment so you can secure a fishing rod from a local fisherman. As you progress through the game with Hector, and without wishing to give away too many spoilers, you find yourself moving from the 60s to the 90s where you meet sculptor Margaret, the second character that you get to play as during the course of the game.
Anyone who is a fan of the point-and-click genre knows that games like this live or die by the puzzle mechanics. If it’s too hard, and random, you get bored easily but if the game is clever enough, it mixes simple and more complex puzzles to make you feel challenged but always keep you invested. ‘Whirlight: No Time To Trip’ is the latter, and the puzzles will make you think but they’re not impossible to solve. Yes, there will be a few occasions where you find yourself trying to combine everything in your inventory but those times, for me at least, were few and far between.
The conversation system is a lot of fun. As with the likes of ‘Monkey Island’, ‘Whirlight’ very much focuses on humour and you can have some hilarious conversations with the local. One part of the game sees you charming an old woman in a church so you can join the choir, while another moment sees you bribing a little boy in order to get your hands on an item you need. There are plenty of options with every conversation and it adds a nice layer to the game.
Visually, ‘Whirlight: No Time To Trip’ is a delight to look at. The environments are very detailed and the characters beautifully drawn. Because there’s so much to look at, you can click to see all of the items in the vicinity that you can interact with and this is really helpful. One of my favourite puzzles involves tormenting a squirrel with a musical instrument, which takes you all over Vernice Bay. Alongside the graphics, the voice acting is strong too really bringing these quirky characters to life.
‘Whirlight: No Time To Trip’ is a witty and engaging point-and-click adventure that is hard to put down once you start playing. If you grew up on ‘Day of the Tentacle’ and ‘Monkey Island’, this game will be right up your street. It has all the makings of a classic point-and-click adventure, drawing plenty of inspiration from classic games but never losing sight of what makes it unique. I really enjoyed playing the game and there’s a decent amount of gameplay to be had if you work your way right through to the end.
Developer: imaginarylab Publisher: imaginary lab Reviewed on: PC Release date: 14th May 2026 View ‘Whirlight: No Time To Trip' on Steam
