Later Alligator

The longest pun I've ever heard

Why

• I liked the humour, pretty clever dialogue in places
• Cool aesthetic, fun minigames
• References abound

Why Not

• You'd better like the humour, because it doesn't change

Impressions

Later Alligator is a fun, silly game which accomplishes exactly what it sets out to. You play as a faceless but strongly mob-enforcer coded character who bumps into a hypochondriac alligator called Pat, who's convinced his family plans to kill him at a mysterious meeting they've set up that evening. You have the rest of the day to get to know his various family members, convincing them to divulge what they know about 'The Event' through fun little minigames tied to their personalities.

Those personalities are varied and often amusing, but they're all kinda the same frenetic character underneath. It definitely seems like there was one writer for this and they had a very specific style they were going for across all the dialogue. Not a bad thing by any means, especially since one run of the day clocks in at around 2 hours, but if you don't like the humour in the first 15min that's unlikely to change later on.

Another strong through-line is pop culture references; this game is jam packed with them. Off the top of my head I remember:

• Yakuza 0 with a majima alligator
• Cowboy Bebop, along with a bunch of other anime in a character's saved images folder
• Geocities personal websites
• Metal Gear Solid with the Solid Snake achievement (feel like they made that minigame harder deliberately so people would see the statue haha)

If you get the references, unexpectedly stumbling upon them adds a lot to your enjoyment of the game and hopefully I didn't ruin them for you by listing some out here. Oops.

Overall a fun ride with a lot of personality which clearly had plenty of care put into it. Strong recommend if you like the art style and humour.