What is it with animals and mystery games? It's always anthropomorphic characters playing as a detective, an inspector, a private investigators, etc. I don't have anything against it, but it's such an interesting pattern that I'm sure to look into in the future. Be it ducks in Duck Detective; chickens in Chicken Police; a racoon in Tails Noir; or a cat in Blacksad, if it's a mystery, it's played with animals. This time, it's a cat once again in Goloso Game's console port of Inspector Waffles Early Days. The game initially released on November 15, 2024 for PC and Gameboy (yes, you read that correctly!) and this prequel to the Inspector Waffles universe is finally on consoles, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, and Xbox Series & One, on September 12, 2025. 

A hero isn't complete without an Origin Story

✅ A prequel to Inspector Waffles
✅ Anthropomorphic characters & setting
✅ simple story with fun pop-culture Easter eggs
✅ Pun-filled adventure 

The game Inspector Waffles Early Days follows the adventures of the titular character as he is awoken by his mom, reminiscent of the classic Pokémon or Chrono Trigger opening, as she tells you that you are going to be late for your first day of work as an inspector. Waffles was up late playing video games on his Meowtendo and must rush off and meet his new Chief of police Patches, your jaded partner Pancakes, and your future arch-nemesis Mad Catter.  

The game places you into the paws of a young but clever cat detective in the anthropomorphic city of Cattown. Waffles is portrayed as a young and naive cat, one who doesn't even partake in catnip or milk! As the name suggests, the main demographic of the city are cats, but along the way, you'll encounter dogs and ducks, amongst others. You'll be solving mysteries, solving theft, and murder along the way as Waffles is  shaped into the Inspector he was meant to be.

While the crimes are serious, there is a comedic undertone that will amuse those who are familiar with video games, movies, and find never-ending amusement with animal related puns (this is all me). You'll visit several locations like the popular Barkbuster video store where you can rent documentaries about Na-paw-leon and the Paw(n) shop, as well as meet comically named NPCs like Pixel and Snowball during your adventures.

Back then, the controls were simple

✅ retro gameboy gameplay
✅ simple controls

The goal of the prequel, Inspector Waffles Early Days, is to embody the good ol' simple days. As soon soon as you turn the game on, you're treated with pixelated goodness, 10:9 screen ratio, and a picture of a gameboy with its simple A/B/Select/Start control scheme. 

Due to this, the overall gameplay is a simple one. You are a newly minted inspector whose job is to go from place to place to find clues. You'll then use those clues to assist you with your interrogation of the different animals in Cattown. Then at the end, you'll need to report your findings and deductions to your partner Pancakes (who somehow knows everything that's happening even though he never moves a muscle).

✅ 5 main chapters with 1 bonus at the end
✅ find clues, interrogate NPCs, and deduce!
✅ puzzle gameplay
✅ different locations

The game is divided in 5 separate chapters, each with its own focus case, while you track down the main bad guy, like a mystery tv-show. In each of these "episodes" containing arson, theft, drug trafficking, and murder, you'll have three main actions: Finding clues, interrogating animals, and reporting back.   

✅ points of interest is simple to discern
❌ Waffle is finicky to control 
❌ No journal about the people you've spoken to
❌ dialogue is difficult to follow, huge text size but small dialogue box

In order to solve your case, you'll need to speak to different animals of interests. In order to properly ask them questions, you'll need to find clues in order to pry information off of them as they are never willing to just give it to you. As I've mentioned, this is relatively simple to do as actual gameplay interactions are limited. However, what is there is not fun to interact with. 

Controlling Waffles is a task. It's as if they are trying to have me control a kitten who's just learned to walk as you trudge slowly through the scene and accidentally fumble your way through doorways when you're trying to interact with something beside it. He's both slow yet the slightest touch makes him take big steps. It's finicky and forced me to use the directional buttons to walk, which is perhaps the point, who knows. 

Another unnecessary obstacle is reading. The dialogue box for Inspector Waffles Early Days looks like a police notepad and Waffles writes as if he's in grade 1: giant letters with wide spacing. Often times, sentences won't fit in one screen and will need interaction in order to finish the sentence, breaking up the flow, and making dialogue difficult to understand. To make matters worse, the dialogue "screen" will always say who is talking, which takes up unnecessary space, again breaking up the sentence structure.  I know it seems like I am making too big a deal of this, but the game mostly comprises of talking to NPCs, therefore reading becomes a big part of the game.

✅ good pacing
✅ Mad Catter is an interesting optional story
✅ with good puzzles

Luckily, the whole process of visiting the different places in Cattown, talking to the animals, and solving their problems is an overall fun and interesting process. My favourite part of the game, besides solving the cases, is figuring out the puzzles the Mad Catter has left for me. They require paying attention to small details within the game, and aren't immediately obvious, while not being completely obtuse, which I find many puzzle games do. If you need help with any of Mad Catter's challenges, look at my guides for each one.

• linear progression
• a short 3-4hr adventure

Once you've found all the clues and interrogated all the animals of interest, you'll end the episode by reporting what you've learned to Pancakes. He'll ask you questions about the case and you'll need to answer in a multiple-choice format then he'll give you a mark. Inspector Waffles Early Days tells a linear story. Like it or hate it, you cannot progress until you get all the questions correctly, which also means that the episode will only end if you point your paws at the correct animal.

Retro looks and retro sounds

✅ Gameboy game in 2025
✅ retro inspired
✅ retro, jazzy BGM
❌ minimal SFX

First impressions are important and Inspector Waffles Early Days goes all out. The first game, Inspector Waffles, is a pixelated 2D side scroller point of view. While it still had the retro, classic vibes, Early Days certainly takes it a step further by imitating the Gameboy days. 

Right off the bat, you'll see the classic handheld 10:9 screen ratio and the ability to change the left and right "black screens" to different graphics. The game is played in a detailed top-down view reminiscent of that era. With simple colours, textures and style, it is a stark difference from what is available in the original game, in a good way.

I know the whole point of a game is actually playing it, but I often AFK, making my play time much longer than it should be. However, it does allow me to appreciate the background music more. The BGM in Inspector Waffles Early Days has a polished, modern sound while still keeping that retro chiptune, jazzy feel.

ACCESSIBILITY/OPTIONS

✅ keybinding options
✅ change native ratio
✅ change screen border
❌ only English and French language options

The Story Continues (hopefully)

This anthropomorphic detective game, delivers what it sets out to do: a retro prequel to tell the origin story of Inspector Waffles, in both story and presentation. It's a game that requires no pre-requisite knowledge of the universe to be properly consumed. Main controls can feel finicky and reading the text can be a challenge, but easily adaptable and doesn't fully detract from overall enjoyment. However, for a game that originally released nearly a year ago, it is still a surprise that it didn't improve on itself. 

If you enjoy narrative driven, puzzle, detective stories, Inspector Waffles Early Days is definitely one I would recommend despite its shortcomings. Hopefully we'll get to experience more of the Inspector Waffles universe in the future.

Inspector Waffles Early Days was released on September 12, 2025 on consoles and was played on PlayStation 5 Pro.
The game was provided by the publisher.

It's currently available on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, Gameboy/Color, and PC.