As you might imagine, these challenges vary hugely in difficulty: that last one, for example, feels almost impossible. Sometimes you get practice tries which often serve only to strain the nerves before the actual attempt. Certain members of your group may be better at some challenges than others, which can feed into your strategy. What the challenges never are is dull. I have played a lot of Big Potato Games since I started reviewing here, and this is one of their most enjoyable ones. Choose your own adventure games are not necessarily interesting on their own. They’re pretty much a one-and-done sort of experience, even when they have a strong narrative or great puzzles that keep you hooked. While the stories for each scenario are silly and not to be taken seriously, it’s the mini games that will give What Next? lasting appeal. There are several dexterity-based challenges, as well as some timed puzzlers that add a fun, stressful element to the game that we really enjoyed, and it was fun to have the pressure on to succeed. All my years of skee-ball and shuffle board did not prepare me for this! Let’s talk about the player count for a second. What Next? plays one to four players. While I don’t mind playing a game by myself, don’t play this one alone. Some of the challenges that come up can be completed or are modified for a solo player. But I don’t know why you would want to do that. Part of the enjoyment I got from playing this game was the shared exclamation of someone completing one of the mini games. Think of watching your favorite team at home by yourself versus in the stands with other fans. Could you still enjoy it? Sure. But there is definitely a difference in enjoyability. If you’re playing with two to four people, you’ll have a great experience. Talk about under the gun! While I’m not terrible at puzzles, your skills go out the window when there’s a time limit. Whoever reads the location card has to undertake the challenge, on rare occasions with a helper. Everyone else gets to watch with bated breath, shouting advice and encouragement. It’s a lovely little piece of gaming theatre, aided by that nagging sense that, even in the surest hands, failure is just around the corner.

In reality, there are few clues as to which is the best choice: part of the game is attempting the same adventure multiple times and learning the optimal paths. This isn’t a problem with the game as the adventures are quite short, and the real meat of play lies in undertaking challenges to overcome problems. Lately, I’ve been jumping between playing more complex, longer games and short and simple ones. I like doing this, specifically, I enjoy the variety of those experiences and what entices me about them. If you’re looking for a game to have some fun with again, l might have one for you. Indeed it’s clearly written as such, with all three adventures adopting a tone of wry comedy, full of silly ideas and showpiece moments. But there’s plenty to enjoy for all ages, from nods to popular franchises to the occasional hidden gag for adults. It’s hard to imagine anyone feeling self-conscious reading out the text since everyone is in on the joke.Now, it wasn’t just for the credit of being awesome under pressure that made completing these mini games fun. The success or failure actually steered the narrative and what the next story options would be, and I think that was a great design choice. No longer are you just making an arbitrary story choice, but you actually have to earn it. I think it is a great way to get the group really invested in what happens. Each person will have a chance to read the location info and do a challenge. That’s also a sort of beauty in the fact that there are a variety of these mini games. If you are terrible at dexterity games, there are others that you may be better suited for and can show off your skills to be the hero of the group.

What Next? is entirely the sum of its parts, the writing is hilarious (you’ll only feel wry, clever and funny reading the cards to the group unlike some co-op adventure games), the challenges are great, and there’s a real sense of tension every time a piece of peril is added to the tower. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - January 18, 2024 (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Switch) And this is less a complaint about the game and more just an expression of how much we enjoyed anyway. Everything about it is elegantly put together – and we cannot stress enough how good the writing is for setting the tone –even if it’s a bit inelegant to rise like a leaping salmon to catch a card from the air. What Next? contains three different stories of varying difficulty, where you and your friends do a sort of choose your own adventure with mini games thrown in. As with all card-based choose your own adventure games, you’ll start out with a setup story and then there is a choice of where to go or what to do. What Next? has a multitude of different mini games that you’ll encounter throughout your adventures.

Do you have the skills to survive?