[Review] Overboard - Nintendo Switch

Developed and Published By: inkle Studios
Categories: Visual Novel, Puzzle, Murder Mystery
Release Date: 06.02.21

Overboard! Your husband that is. You tossed him right over and now…you’ll just need to convince everyone you didn’t. A woman in her prime, an awful husband, why wouldn’t you toss him over? I mean besides it being murder and against the law.

So Overboard is a bit of a visual novel of sorts. It’s a bite sized one, with each game running around..a half an hour, if that. You’ll arrive in New York from Europe by morning, you’ll have to convince enough people that you didn’t kill your husband before then or you’ll be sitting in a nice, cold cell. Talk to people, hide the evidence, try not to contradict yourself. Or maybe just get enough money to buy someone’s silence. You could always just jump off the ship too, your choice.

There aren’t a lot of characters, but the few you meet at quite characters indeed. The old drunk, the captain who seems to have a thing for our lovely lead, another woman who knows our secret, and also loved your ex. Some people are more than willing to believe you’re ignorant to what is going on, a few…not so much. But as long as you don’t tell someone one thing, and then say another, things should be ok. What you’re holding can definitely help or hinder too, from sleeping pills to a lost earring. Why would you need such strong sleeping pills anyway?

Once a run is over, you can just replay the game and try and get a more correct path or ending with checklists and it even shows which choices you chose before. Maybe it was that one thing you said or that one thing you did. Thanks to the short length of a run, you won’t be wondering what choice you made to affect something 8 hours later.

Dialog is snappy, it can be crude, and is often funny. What’s a visual novel without good writing or dialog after all? Add to this with a nice old timey Swing soundtrack and a nice artstyle and Overboard is a solid package. It honestly don’t hurt that it’s a quick play too, meaning you won’t need to get incredibly invested for just some quick fun.