If you’re a fan of point-and-click games, then you’ll be excited to know that there’s a new game coming from the creator of D3AD HAND, Day of the Jellyfish, and my personal favorite in-browser Itch.io point-and-click adventure, Mister Jack. This horror-coded adventure game is about to drop a demo, and it’s an absolute must-play. 

Escape from 8-Bit High is a point-and-click adventure by Duck Made Of Wood. It’s stuffed with late 80s and early 90s pop-culture references that will make you feel nostalgic in the greatest way imaginable, while challenging you with quirky puzzles and making you laugh with spot-on situational humor. 

We all have that one uncle

Hank, who will be familiar from the prequel Day of the Jellyfish, lives with his uncle Seamus. Seamus seems like, for lack of a better term, the stereotypical ‘crazy uncle’, filled with conspiracy theories and a wild imagination that has him on edge at all times, although his focus seems to be on creatures, which is probably a good thing considering where this story will take us. 

The goal of the demo is to, ultimately, get the keys to the van so you can go and pick up Duck and Alex and head off to the prom, where Blueberry Finn is booked to play. Of course, this is a point-and-click, and the route taken to get to that point is filled with twists, turns, and item-combining puzzles that will have you scratching your head. 

Fun features and QoL blessings

One of the new features of Escape from 8-Bit High is music battles. These pseudo-rhythm games are how you defeat any enemies that you encounter, and you’ll need to work out or discover winning four-note combos to get a direct hit. 

Don’t worry if you’re bad at rhythm games – there’s a ‘super easy’ mode which does all the hard work for you, letting you sit back and enjoy the experience without fumbling over the combinations you need to input. Even for me, as someone who prides themselves on being pretty good at rhythm games, this mode came in useful while fighting the pancake that works as a tutorial in the demo. 

Yes, you read that right. 

If you regularly play point-and-clicks, you’ll know how easy it is to accidentally skip over something that can be interacted with, or get stuck before you overlook something pretty obvious on the screen. Escape from 8-Bit High has a helping hand system, allowing you to press space or hover over the “!” in the bottom right corner to show every interactive point within the current area. 

There’s also an objectives list, which will eventually come in very handy as the game progresses. The three main characters are set to go off on their own, so having a reminder of what you’re doing as each of them is something that will definitely be useful. 

There’s something weird happening in Cloudydale

After you’ve got the keys back from Seamus and successfully driven off to pick up Duck and Alex, you’ll quickly realize that Uncle Seamus might not be so much of a crazy uncle after all. Honestly, I think the man might have a point. 

As you drive, you’ll see some very bizarre things happening around the van. A zombie hand here, an abducted cow there, and even a traffic-cone-wearing mole that appears in the middle of the road. All of that, on top of the demonic-looking entity that’s infecting the Pomodore 64, leaves you wanting more.

Sadly, the demo comes to an end not long after this, with the trio splitting up (against Duck’s better judgment) to figure out what’s going on. But isn’t that what makes an epic demo? 

The Escape from 8-Bit High demo will be available to download and play through Steam on September 15, so there’s not long to wait before you can experience everything it has to offer. The prequel, Day of the Jellyfish, will also be available for free on the same day, so you get double the dose of this instantly classic trio.