Whirlight - No Time To Trip Review

Video games have come a long way since they were first created. It wasn’t that long ago when DOOM was the best game on the market, whereas now titles like The Last of Us Part II are almost commonplace. It’s hard, if not impossible, to genuinely enjoy iD Software’s most famous shooter in the modern era, though. Its visuals are dated, its gameplay hasn’t fully held up, and it obviously lacks many of the conventions modern games rely on. Today, the original DOOM is enjoyable in the same way classic literature is: as a fascinating time capsule, not necessarily something most people would actively want to experience unless they’re a little strange.

So, needless to say, I would never actually recommend DOOM. I also won’t be telling anyone to buy Whirlight - No Time To Trip for many of the same reasons. The game isn’t bad, but almost every aspect of it feels dated. Decent point-and-click adventure though it may be, there’s a reason this particular flavour of the genre isn’t as popular as it once was. Whirlight feels like little more than a relic of a bygone era that somehow released in 2026.

‍Whirlight isn’t difficult to describe. It’s Monkey Island, — or for younger folks, Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town — with a sci-fi skin. You primarily play as Hector, a toned-down version of Rick from Rick and Morty, minus the obvious alcoholism but with the same knack for making malfunctioning inventions. He quickly finds himself embroiled in a world-saving plot involving time travelling, quirky characters, and a seemingly endless number of frustrating puzzles.

To the game’s credit, Whirlight’s narrative isn’t terrible. It has the same family-friendly energy as Back to the Future, complete with pop culture references and deliberately goofy humour. That doesn’t necessarily make it good, though. The story unfolds predictably, ticking off the expected twists and over-the-top companions, without ever doing much beyond the bare minimum. Despite the marketing, this isn’t a galaxy-spanning adventure, nor is it consistently funny. No Stone Unturned this is not. It’s a boilerplate point-and-click that may occasionally make you giggle, but little more.

The same can be said for its gameplay, only replace “giggle” with “sigh and question why you’re still playing.” The industry has evolved considerably since the ‘90s, but you wouldn’t know it from Whirlight. Almost everything here functions exactly as it did decades ago. The puzzles are intentionally convoluted, the visuals and soundtrack are underwhelming, and Hector moves at what feels like a literal snail’s pace.

It’s easy to excuse the latter two issues. The puzzles, however, genuinely drag the experience down. Rarely do they make you feel clever, and even more rarely are they enjoyable. Most involve combing through environments for vaguely interactive objects, then combining or using them on seemingly random pieces of scenery until something works. You then repeat that process several times until the game finally decides you’ve stumbled onto the correct solution. 

It really isn’t fun to do any of that, and the payoff for completing a puzzle rarely feels like it was worth the effort. You’ll frequently have to brute force your way to completion, trying every combination of objects in your inventory on every item you can interact with until one works. Even if you have a decent understanding of video game logic, Whirlight’s main gameplay mechanic rarely takes advantage of it.

To be fair, that sort of design is foundational to many older point-and-click adventures, and Whirlight absolutely succeeds at recreating it. Whether that’s a compliment is another matter entirely. The title’s dedication to mimicking titles like Monkey Island is admirable in its own way. There aren’t a lot of true point-and-click games left, with most modern successors streaming the obtuse mechanics and mediocre storytelling that once defined the genre. Whirlight undeniably feels authentic to that era, and if that’s specifically what you’re looking for, you’ll probably enjoy it.

But if you appreciate the advancements games have made over the past few decades, there’s very little here worth celebrating. Its puzzles are frustratingly obtuse, its presentation feels dated, and its story is mostly forgettable. There are countless games that offer similar ideas without the same level of irritation. South of the Circle, NORCO, and Blue Prince all deliver similarly cerebral experiences while respecting the player’s time considerably more. 

‍Whirlight - No Time To Trip was clearly made for a very specific audience and if you belong to that group — trust me, you already know if you do — you’ll probably enjoy it, if not outright love it. Everyone else should stick with games that modernised these mechanics instead of stubbornly preserving all their worst habits.