Well, here’s a bit of a surprise. Sega just released a free new visual-novel on Steam: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. I kid you not: this isn’t an April Fools’ Day joke.

Basically, the premise goes like this: it’s Amy’s birthday. She invites a bunch of people to a train called the Mirage Express. And it’s a murder mystery party game. Or is it an actual party? Sonic may or may not have been murdered for real…

The game has a similar feel to Phoenix Wright. It’s point-and-click, with “fully hand-drawn landscapes and characters.” You collect clues, talk to characters, and investigate who might be responsible for the murder. It’s a pretty neat concept. Though I wonder if Sega took any clues from the “There’s Something About Amy” animation.

The murder of Sonic - screenshot

As for Steam Deck compatibility, the game runs out of the box. There’s no 16:10 resolution; the closest you can get is 1280 x 720. You can use the touchscreen or the right analog stick to look around and get clues. I wouldn’t say it’s super compatible with the Deck as far as controls, but you can still get the job done.

Since the game is a visual novel, you can set the framerate to 15 FPS, although I’ve found this to be a little too jarring. 30 FPS is more like it. Of course, you can tweak the TDP and GPU clock speed all the way down to get as much battery life as possible.

Since the game just came out a few hours ago, I don’t really have any thoughts on the game yet, other than it’s been pretty interesting so far.

Get the game on Steam.