I had this frisbee back when I was a teenager and I didn't quite know why I hated it back then. I do now.
This isn't a game. This is nothing.
Crippled by long loads, poor interface, and the Mega CD's mind-blowing lack of colors and compression issues that make animated GIFs on Twitter look like a grand 70mm cinema projection, the "novelty" (there will be a lot of air quotes in this review) of FMV was this coaster's only selling point. Take that away, as it barely exists in any workable form here, and you will quickly realize there is absolutely nothing else to this.
From a production value perspective, the sets are cheap (it seems that they just redressed one room over and over), the soap opera acting is atrocious, and there is zero atmosphere. For a Sherlock Holmes adventure that is simply unforgivable. Seriously, the accents of the "actors" is all over the place, ranging from American, English, Canadian, Scottish, Australian, Neptunian...all within one sentence. It's like these people have never spoken words before and are having trouble forming sounds with their lips. It beggars belief. Holmes and Watson are played by Peter Farley and Warren Green...who have NEVER acted in anything since. Farley himself looks like a cross between Jonathan Hyde and David Schneider, hardly the aquiline Holmes we are used to. He even looks right into the camera at one point!
There are three cases featured on this first volume: The Case of the Mummy's Curse, The Case of the Tin Soldier, and The Case of the Mystified Murderess. What you basically have to "do" is watch the video scenes, identify a circle of characters, visit said characters from the lists in your index, and then establish who did what based on their stories when you go to see the judge, which wouldn't actually happen as Holmes was a "CONSULTING" detective. It's in the title for heaven's sake! The information would be passed onto Lestrade or another representitive of Scotland Yard and it would be them going to court.
There is a Steam version features better interface and improved video (which only enhances the cheapness of it all) over the Mega CD, but there are no trophies/achievements or trading cards, which really would have added some much needed dimension to the "gameplay" and it's just as worthless. There were three volumes in this dreadful series but only Volume 2 made it to the Mega CD as they probably realized that their system was tanking due to wretched software.
Never ever purchase this "game". It's a total waste of money and not even worth it from a nostalgia point-of-view. It's because of FMV trash with no real substance like this that the Mega CD got such a bad name and underperformed. Sega really did put their eggs in the wrong basket with this concept.
