Game review: 'Inspector Waffles' (2021)

Inspector Waffles (trailer) is a 2021 adventure game by Goloso Games, best described as a fun, casual point-and-click, available on multiple platforms.

Waffles is a feline detective going through a rough period, drinking alcoholic milk and blaming himself for what happened to his partner in the Cat Town Police Department. When a new, high-profile case comes his way, involving the murder of a box magnate, he's teamed up with a sniffer dog named Spotty to solve the mystery.

This is a 2D pixel-art game that takes about 6 hours to play. If you decide to live-stream it, it'll take longer because there's a lot of text to read out loud, and there's no voice-acting. The story and game structure are slightly linear, but it's definitely not a visual novel. It's a comedic adventure where you look for clues while managing conversation topics and items you've found so far.

One slightly unusual thing for a point-and-click, NPCs only react to inventory items when you're in conversation mode. Otherwise the puzzles aren't especially difficult, though with all such games in this genre, you might get stuck briefly here and there. Nothing too bad, with some humor along the way! There's a built-in hint system that Waffles hates to resort to, because it involves phoning his mother.

This game is truly furry, in the sense that the story universe is populated by anthropomorphic cats and dogs, and aspects of their society are based on those species. There's a good dose of silliness and the occasional pun. It doesn't take itself entirely seriously, and at the same time it's not afraid to put Waffles in a situation where he doesn't feel safe.

If I have any complaints, the conversation interface can be a little repetitive, and it needs more save slots. There's also an optional extra ending, that requires finding 8 collectables over the course of the game. Unfortunately you can't go back for them if you miss any. So I recommend saving a little ways into each chapter, and looking up where to find them. You might get minor spoilers if you do that, but I think the end result is worth it! At worst, you might have to re-play a chapter.

What I especially enjoyed in the game was the dynamic between Waffles and Spotty. Waffles is the cynical cop who doesn't like to do things by the book; Spotty is the naive, trusting rookie who just wants to be a good dog and make everyone happy. Gradually, Waffles learns to respect Spotty's abilities and they become a good working team.

The game's sense of humor lifted my spirits, the background music was a good fit, and I liked what they did with the low-res pixel art. If you can reduce Van Gogh's painting of Café Terrace at Night down to 20 by 20 pixels and still be recognizable, you know what you're doing. Okay, someone wasn't good at pixilating trees, but everything else was fine.

If you're looking for a high-action game, this isn't for you. But if you want a casual, story-driven game that's furry, silly, and without pretense, I think you'd enjoy it! Along the way there are cameo appearances by other animal game detectives, like Chicken Police and Lord Winklebottom Investigates.

Inspector Waffles is available on Steam, Itch.io, GoG, Switch, XBox and Playstation. And there are two related games I haven't played - Inspector Waffles: Early Days (2024), and Waffles' Cranked Stories (2025), which isn't on Steam (yet), originally having been designed for a handheld console called the PlayDate.