So Blonde review

Your roots are showing

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Vivid

  • +

    busy backgrounds

  • +

    Lots to see and do

  • +

    Decent voice acting

Cons

  • -

    Could've done more with subject

  • -

    Too much running about

  • -

    Excessive loading times

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

She’s hot, she’s blonde and she’s barely 17. But she’s also a royal pain in the arse. Sunny is the main character in So Blonde, a point-and-click adventure with an oldschool LucasArts feel, which revolves around a ditzy heroine who, after falling from her cruise ship, is washed up on a tropical island populated by pirates. Sounding familiar?

With a story written by Steve Ince (of Broken Sword fame) and promised by the website to be “wacky” (which rung alarm bells), we’d hoped for a heavy dose of irony, but was instead given shopping mall and cell phone jokes. The puzzles aren’t bad once you get back into that convoluted ‘combine tubing with bellows to make a milk frother’ mindset, and there’s also a handful of minigames thrown into the mix, all of which are patronisingly simple, especially as they come with auto-win options. Annoyingly, the game insists on making you run from one end of the island to the other, and with too-long loading times between screens for a 2D game and no chance to skip to an area, this becomes tedious.

Thank God for the graphics then. While the 3D characters are OK, the backgrounds are lush, vibrant cartoon 2D affairs, teeming with quirky details and animation, and loads of interactivity. The game also has a bunch of pop culture references, including a manhole cover in the jungle bearing the code from Lost, an encounter with Elvis and the somewhat obligatory nods to Monkey Island, given that the game seems to borrow liberally from it. And would you believe it, there’s also some fairly decent voice acting on offer. There’s plenty to see and do, but we can’t shake the feeling that with more adult humour and irony, So Blonde would have been much more.

Oct 29, 2008

More info

GenreAdventure
DescriptionAn average and not very amusing old school adventure game that barely stays above water with nice graphics.
Platform"PC"
US censor rating""
UK censor rating"12+"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
More
CATEGORIES
Latest in Adventure
Screenshot of Herdling, showing the weird yaks heading toward a sunset horizon.
With 18,000 glowing Steam reviews on their lovely debut game, this indie team's game about leading cute fantasy yaks up a mountain is instantly one to watch
The two characters in Split Fiction holding their hands up in surrender in a futuristic city
Split Fiction, the new game from the It Takes Two devs, launches to Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam and is the highest rated game on Metacritic this year
Exploring and fighting in Blades of Fire
Blades of Fire plays like a lost Xbox 360-era mashup between God of War and Soulslikes, and it's coming from the studio behind Metroid Dread
Pokemon Legends: Z-A screenshot
Pokemon Legends: Z-A looks to finally bring my anime-inspired dreams of truly active combat to life
Zoomed in art of the Sudowoodo illustration rare card in Pokemon TCG Pocket.
Pokemon's literal god of the universe is almost unstoppable in TCG Pocket – the only thing that can save us is a smiley tree and a concussed dinosaur
Charizard in the Pokemon anime.
Pokemon fans prove they'll buy anything as a Cheeto shaped like a Charizard sells for almost $90k
Latest in Reviews
The pump header of the NZXT Kraken Elite 360 RGB showing a 35 degree cpu
NZXT Kraken Elite 360 RGB review: "Has some solid design points that make installation a lot easier"
Logitech G Pro X TKL Rapid gaming keyboard on a wooden desk with blue lighting
Logitech G Pro X TKL Rapid review: "one of the best value Hall effect gaming keyboards out there"
Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt in The Electric State
The Electric State review: "Although this may be their most visually stunning movie yet, it looks like the Russos are yet to find their footing outside of the MCU"
Doggerland player board
Doggerland review: "A delicate dance of survival and management that doesn't feel weighted toward a single strategy"
Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX gaming mouse standing upright on a wooden desk
Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX review: "a force to be reckoned with"
Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil: Born Again season 1 review: "There have been far worse Marvel projects, but few as disappointing as this"