Adso’s best friend is missing and he suspects some sort of sacrificial killing after seeing the evidence at the crime scene. He refuses to stop until he figures out what happened to her and with the help of his friends he hopes to put an end to the craziness that is going on in Pine Creek.

Carmelo Electronics and Incube8 Games new Gameboy Color game Pine Creek is a mystery adventure game that has you exploring different towns, talking to people, and playing really terrible arcade games. You play as Adso, a young kid with some very interesting friends. Adso is supposed to work on a school project with his friend Judith who is missing. You sneak into her house and see a pentagram and a severed finger – not good! Now you have to figure out what is going on and who you can trust!

 And yes you read correctly! Pine Creek  is a Gameboy color game! So you can expect those awesome top-down pixelated graphics we all love. You can also look forward to the awesome, and slightly creepy, one note background music. Game play is very simple.  You walk around, talk to people, collect items and use to them to do various tasks. There are no real puzzles, just a big mystery to solve, and items are just used when they are needed so no need to try to figure out what to do. The fun of the game is really talking to people and figuring out the clues. As you talk to people and find clues, you get a list of tasks you have to perform to move on in the game. There are also some very (intentionally) bad games you can play at the arcade, that is if you don’t tick off the owner! It’s very easy and there is no way to screw up or get deadlocked.

Pine Creek is very linear and has really only one ending, however the ending varies slightly depending on certain dialogue choices and a couple other things. So there is slight replay value! It is also very short, I would say between 4-6 hours long. There are really only a couple side quests as well that honestly don’t seem to affect anything.  I would’ve liked more, it would’ve made the game feel longer and given more depth to the characters.

I must also warn you that Pine Creek is VERY creepy and at times pretty graphic. This is not a kid’s game by any means. It also has its share of humor and pop references. There are also a couple adult themes, such as one of the main places in the game being a sexual fantasy hotel. But don’t worry, you do not see any pixelated sex scenes 😉  

My biggest critique of Pine Creek is that though it was fun and had a good story line (with a crazy twist at the end!), overall I felt it was a bit rushed out. There were a couple times when I felt like the creator had intended to do more with some characters and maybe even side events but it didn’t happen. There is a little easter egg character sort of explains the rushed feel of the game. See if you can spot him! Pine Creek was also rather vulgar for a game consisting of mainly kids talking, but I’m just not real big on swearing in general.       

So over all Pine Creek is funny, cute, gets right to the point, short but fun, and is downright terrifying. It had a great little mystery to solve, with a crazy twist ending, but I really would’ve liked to see more side quests and other things panned out, but it was still fun I give it 4 outta 5 baby dragons.

Pine Creek will be out in October in cartridge form on Gameboy Color in its own box with instruction manual and other inserts! There will also be a collector’s addition with additional goodies available as well. No price info is given yet for the cart release. Don’t have a GBC or too impatient to wait till October? No problem! A rom is available now for download from the site https://carmelo-electronics.itch.io/pine-creek. So go ahead and check it out, maybe don’t eat dinner first…