The Next BIG Thing Reviews

I really wanted to like this game. Especially since it comes from Pendulo Studios - the minds behind the timeless classic Runaway. Their signature art style is once again on full display here, and honestly, it's stunning. The beautifully detailed, hand-drawn 2.5D aesthetic still works wonders in a modern adventure game. Visually, The Next Big Thing is everything you’d expect from Pendulo: vibrant, stylish, and consistently impressive. But unlike Runaway, The Next Big Thing is just... ungh. The characters are extremely irritating, loud, smug, and constantly acting like you should already know them. The writing throws you into random scenes with no real setup or context, expecting you to keep up. One moment you’re doing something vaguely coherent, the next you’re yeeted into an entirely new location as if several key scenes were accidentally left on the cutting room floor. Most solutions to the puzzles feel random or driven by gimmicks rather than clever problem solving. And when they do make sense, the execution is still off. Voice acting is... fine, I guess, but the endless list of supposedly funny one-liners from your characters will have you rolling your eyes more than chuckling. And then... there's the "tango" puzzle. A bizarre rhythm/timing-based minigame that feels completely out of place in a point'n'click title. Even when you know exactly what to do, it still manages to fail, seemingly just to spite you. It's easily one of the worst puzzle implementations I’ve seen in the genre. I really wanted to like The Next Big Thing. I gave it multiple chances. But between the grating characters, incoherent storytelling, and outright frustrating gameplay, it’s just not worth the effort. A beautiful-looking game that unfortunately forgets how to be a good adventure.