The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble

The Good
Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth (written as Woodruff from here on out) is an adventure game from Coktel Vision, a French company who was acquired by Sierra On-Line in the early Nineties. Although the company created Lost in Time and The Prophecy, gamers would be more familiar with their Gobliiins series. Woodruff is a spiritual successor, since it shares the same game mechanics, as well as the same visual style and eccentric humor.

Having spent centuries underground to escape a nuclear war, the humans have finally returned to Earth's surface to discover a peaceful mutant race known as the Bazooks living near a base of a towering hill, in the middle of the jungle. They attack the Bazooks, killing them while enslaving the rest, then build a city that scales both sides of the hill.

Fast forward to the present, Professor Azimuth has developed a contraption that resembles a pair of headphones while Woodruff plays on the table with his teddy bear. Just before an intruder breaks into the house, Azimuth places the contraption on his son's head and places him inside a box. Woodruff watches in horror as his father is kidnapped by the intruder and Woodruff's beloved teddy is shot at while. Outside, the contraption transforms Woodruff into a teenager with the mind of a child.

The player takes control of Woodruff, who knows a little of his past, with the only thing that comes to his mind is the word “Schnibble”. The player is free to explore the world around him by taking elevators to different areas. The game area is quite large, but Woodruff is restricted to his travels due to a lack of reading skills and the appropriate footwear.

The interface is similar to the Gobliins series, and the game is controlled by the mouse. Clicking the left mouse button on an object makes Woodruff look at it, manipulate it, or pick it up. Do the same thing with a character he meets and he starts a conversation with them. Right-clicking brings up the inventory. There are two types of inventory objects. Those that are individual ones, and those that are sorted into groups (which you can access by clicking on a patterned box). Personally, I think the groups are a neat feature since this means that the inventory itself is not too cluttered and it is restricted to just two rows. Moving the mouse near the top of the screen brings up three icons: the control panel where you save, load, or quit; the aforementioned inventory; and the game map.

Woodruff can pick up anything that isn't nailed down. Two important items that he can pick up is a “Tobozon”, a device that Woodruff can use to communicate with other characters by entering the appropriate code on the keypad. The best thing about the Tobozon is that the code is stored in the directory underneath the viewing screen once Woodruff discovers it, so you don't have to write the code down or memorize it. You will also eventually receive a “Transportozon”, which you need to use to get to places much quicker as the game area is quite large, and without it Woodruff will have to walk for miles.

Woodruff features SVGA graphics, which was a first for any Coktel game. Some of the hand-painted backgrounds are stunning, and the game makes good use of hardware scaling as clicking on one of the characters causes Woodruff to step up and face the character. Also, the inventory has a backdrop that blends in with the main one. The council chambers - where you must gather all the Wiseman in the game – has shades of brown, so the inventory's backdrop reflects this, and I think this looks terrific. Most of the animations are great; and when you don't do anything for ten seconds, or try to do something that's impossible, Woodruff will show his impatience.

There is virtually no background music while you play the game, just ambient sound effects that blend in with the current scene. The effects range from traffic outside Azimuth's apartment to demonic laughter in the temples. More often than not, the sound effects are hilarious to listen to, like when Woodruff pronounces each syllable as he mixes them to create a formula, for example. The game features full speech throughout, delivered by actors that are unknown to this day.

The great thing about Woodruff is that throughout most of the game, you can experiment with different things without the fear of dying. It is only near the end of the game that you can do something stupid, such as becoming a member of the Schnibble Sect. Actually, it is worth dying just to see those amusing illustrations.

The Bad
Most of the puzzles in the game are insanely hard, to the point where people who are new to the adventure will be completely stuck. The first puzzle of the game is relatively easy, since the solution is in a few screens to the right. Examples include the Bluxtre Nut and Wiseman puzzles.

The Bottom Line
Those of you who have already played any game in the Gobiiiins series should feel right at home with Woodruff. The game has the same style of humor and visual style. You are also not restricted to one part of the game world, and there is no chance of dying except near the end. There are many puzzles to solve, but new players can be put off with their high difficulty. Still, this is a game that everyone should enjoy.