When you hear someone say, “God, that was the worst game ever!” what games come to mind? In recent years, games like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Battlefield 2042, Babylon’s Fall, and Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition will most likely be named. Maybe you are a retro gamer and remember the dark days of Superman 64, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, or maybe Shaq Fu. Sometimes a really bad game can become good over time or at least people’s perception of it such asCyberpunk 2077, Fallout 76, No Man’s Sky, or Final Fantasy XIV. So what happens when you remaster a really bad game and make it good? You get Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties: Definitive Edition. Find out more in our Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties: Definitive Edition review!
Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties: Definitive Edition
Developer: United Pixtures, Limited Run Games
Publisher: United Pixtures, Limited Run Games
Platforms: 3DO, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed)
Release Date: March 5th, 2024
Players: 1
Price: Base: $19.99
So what is Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties? Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties is a choose-your-own-adventure type game where the player decides the fate of two singles in Los Angeles. Through a chance meeting, John and Jane meet before Jane has an interview for a job. The interview doesn’t go as expected and Jane must flee from the predatory manager. Seeing Jane in danger, John chases after her and tries to save her from the creepy manager (Fletcher).
While playing the story, there are chances for the player to fail and make it so that John and Jane never fall in love. At the very beginning, you can choose to have them meet at a later point. Choosing this option will cause the player to fail the story and see other possible outcomes. The first decision will show a ton of potential pickup lines the player could use to try and change the outcome. When a player fails, the narrator tells the player what they did wrong and gives them a chance to rectify it. The player can choose to return to the menu or continue with the story.
Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties uses Polaroid photos as still pictures to tell the story. Each shot helps to tell another part of the story. Depending on the path the player takes, different photos are used, and players can experience some raunchy moments. The game is fairly short, but the game over screens can be rather comical. There are multiple endings but you can easily select to go to the end with the chapter select and see all of them easily.
Once the player has completed the game, the player can play the new game mode called Plumb the Depths. Plumb the Depths is a game mode similar to Quake/Doom where you crawl through a maze.
While exploring the maze, the player can find deleted scenes, mods, photos, and borders. While searching through the maze, Fletcher will try to kill you. The player can throw plungers at him to kill him temporarily in order to search for bonus content. Players can buy the bonus content using the points earned during the story mode.
It’s worth pointing out that Limited Run Games used an AI upscaler to update the visuals of Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties. In order to upscale the images, the developers had to train an AI algorithm with the actors’ photos.
When they were programming it and trying to apply it to the other main actors it would morph them to look like their counterparts. The AI was also used to make images crisper and remove some of the fuzziness. This is a good example of using AI for a positive aspect rather than being lazy or stealing from other creators.
Obviously, when remastering any game, it is hard for the developer to create new content. Our complaint doesn’t fall on the story itself but rather on the limited use of the Plumb the Depths game mode. The game mode itself could have been a lot more by either creating a Packman-like game mode or something else. Something outside of just a loot grabber would have made it more unique.
Four things were rather annoying while playing but we are not sure if they were bugs or features. The first issue we came across was the game lagging. This could have been intentional to make it feel like an old-timey game. The second issue fell along the same grounds where the audio would be delayed, break out randomly, or come across as static-like; again this could be to give it a retro feel.
The third issue occurred when playing through the story; if you accidentally pushed the left trigger, it would rewind the scene to the very beginning which can be a rather annoying and tedious task. The fourth and final issue was actually in the menu; after you go through the depths and unlock the bonus content, you cannot look at it full screen.
If you have ever been curious or wanted to try one of the worst games ever made, then it might be finally time to play Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties. The Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties: Definitive Edition makes what was one of the worst games ever made into a fun and comical experience.
The $19.99 asking price might be high for some, but the work Limited Run Games has done to remaster the game and preserve it makes it worth the price. If you want a laugh pick up the game, if you are on the fence, wait until it goes on sale. Sadly, the physical copies are sold out.
Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties: Definitive Edition was reviewed on an Xbox Series X using a copy provided by Limited Run Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties is available on 3DO, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S
