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Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties sees an old game from 1994 getting the Remastered treatment, and put out on new consoles, and although I’ve completed the game, some of the content is a little risque, and is currently sat waiting for Youtube to yay/nay whether it can go online. And note that I’ve split the walkthrough into a number of videos, rather than put it all in one, as it’s just going to slam that one right down.
Initially being released on the PC and Panasonic 3DO – an interesting console for its time, but the content on the few games I’ve tried is not great and worth of curiosity value, only – it’s now out on the PS5, PS4, PC and Switch. It’s more a visual novel than anything, but there are a pretty much threadbare handful of options, some of which don’t take the plot in any sort of a different direction. The aim is to get John (Edward J Foster) and Jane (Jeanne Basone) together for the ‘good ending’, which I did early on, so the rest of the time was spent finding the bad ones, which was easy to do, since you just check the results of all the other options you didn’t take first time round.
There’s also a number of extras, access to which is either achieved by playing through the game in full, or playing ‘Plumb The Depths’, a DOOM-style walkabout, finding the video features and clicking on them, while avoiding Jane’s boss, Thresher (Paul Bokor), who was certainly demanding of her. He’ll either catch you and send you back to the main menu, or he can be fended off with plungers that can be picked up amongst those walls.
However, as you play, you can also check out how the images in the game would look in the game WITHOUT upscaling, although one of the extras includes a look at how they did the AI upscaling.
Overall, Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties is a curiosity, but not much more. It might be worth it if you watch all the extras as well, so you get the most bang for your buck. Then again, it’s worth checking it out for game preservation, and it’s only £16.
And yes, the interviews include Kelsey Lewin with her tousled hair, finally having ditched that oaf jackss scmmer, ‘Metal Jesus Rocks’. Sadly, they also include celebrity Youtuber idiot, the Angry Video Game Nerd, who isn’t angry at all.
Also check out the gameplay below,and at the time of posting this review, I’m still adding videos daily! There will be 10 in all.
Now, I’ll have to check out the 25th anniversary release of Night Trap!
Thanks to our friends at Limited Run Games for the review code for this game.
Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties is out now on PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC, including on the Limited Run Games site.
Cast:
Jane: Jeanne Basone
John: Edward J Foster
Paul Mark Thresher: Paul Bokor
Wilma: Thyra Metz
Narrator: Jane’s father: Harry Armis
John’s mother: Violetta Gevorkian
John’s mother (voice): Samantha Eggersoll
Important info:
- Developer: United Pixtures
- Publisher: Limited Run Games
- Players: single-player
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.