April in Paris

Jim Aikin (2008)


April in Paris is a short game written by Jim Aikin that brings to life a small street side cafe. It's a little challenging, in design and game play, but also enjoyable with an ending that ties it all together.

You play a tourist visiting Paris, while having lunch in a charming Parisian sidewalk cafe. It's a small enough place; but with the descriptions being so close together everything kind of looked the same, making it hard to know where I was and how to get around. This is mitigated a bit by being able to go to a particular person or object, but I probably should have turned right to the map in the beginning to get my bearings. It doesn't give away too much.

The puzzles are a little hard even though they fit right into the setting. I had one problem with an object not really standing out from the crowd, and dealing with the dog is practically a Bable fish puzzle that wouldn't end. I also noticed a few bugs with some of the objects and even the hints are bugged, not being able to type in a number over 9.

But in the end, much like the cafe itself, I found it charming. The characters had deep enough backgrounds to feel real, tying into one another that made for a solid cohesiveness. So if you don't mind looking a little bit at the hints to get you through, this is an enjoyable game.