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Card battle games can just appear anywhere these days, even in the least expected places. “One Show Only,” a mystery game, is one of those cases where a card system is integrated into the mechanics. How does it play out for a murder case? Well, that took a bit of detective work.

For both the audience and the star, but can you figure out what happened?

Playing the game as a detective you need to interrogate the circus performers to discover what happened to the star trapeze acrobat during the final act. To do this you need to play your cards right. On a three by three grids, you send up Question Cards from bottom to top to engage in the interrogation. By clicking and dragging the cards up (with each card having different movements based on which column of the grid they’re on) you’ll enable more cards in your hand to use and unlock new ones to grill the witnesses with. The performers will retaliate on the grid by sending down enemy cards to clog up the bottom, stopping you from putting down more cards. Their cards have the same movement limitations as yours so you can take some time to strategizing. When you’re done interrogating a person, you can leave them and put the spotlight on the next one.

”I’m also a seasoned Duel Master.”

The gameplay is simplistic, but the payoff is the dialogue during the interrogation. There is some good writing with a mix of seriousness and dark humor between the cast, but the clown takes the spotlight as best personality. While the dialog lines are as entertaining as they are integral. It doesn’t help that some focus is leaning on the card battle, making it almost like watching “Yu-Gi-Oh!” to see the card mechanics instead of the plot. The Question Cards themselves don’t have the questions on them. Which you would think they would, considering that they’re “Question Cards” and that the official website has screenshots from early game development. There are a few cards that tell you who you should use them on but the rest requires some sleuthing.

Welcome to The Circus! No circle tools allowed!

“One Show Only” has a dark cartoon design that would be great a Lovecraft children’s book. Most of the grim art style is hand drawn, down to the basic shapes people would use their drawing software for. The comics at the beginning and the end progress are short, but it’s enough for intrigue. The dramatic ending took me for surprise when I solved the case, but since it’s a short game you’ll just have to check the game out for yourself.

For the music, there’s nothing upbeat and cheery in this game. In the matter of fact, it´s just a gloom and eerie soundtrack to set the mood for a murder case. You’re not going to hear Gary Lewis’s “Everybody Loves a Clown” in this game, though I think the clown would do that if you could ask him. You may leave this circus with tune in your head, at least the xylophone notes.

Pros:
+ The art and music cast a grim setting for a murder case
+ Interesting use of card battles for interrogations
+ Contains a mix of serious and dark humor
+ Makes you feel like a detective when going in blind

Cons:
– Most of the cards don’t indicate what the questions are
– Card battling can be distracting when reading the dialogue

Gameplay: 3.5/5
Graphics: 3.5/5
Sound/Music: 3/5
Controls: 4/5
Replay value: 1/5

tgg grade 3 out of 5

Verdict: 3/5
“One Show Only” is an interesting card battling detective game with its biggest shortcoming is how the battles can be distracting, which can be a problem since the game’s length is short. Still, it’s worth a weekend play if you want a mystery to solve while taking a break from “Card City Nights.”

Title: One Show Only
Developer: Tristan Dahl
Format: PC
Genre: Mystery, Card
Resolution: 1024×768
Release date: 2016-07
Difficulty: Normal
Spent time: 1+ hours
Average grade internationally: 60.00% Gamerankings.com
PEGI/ESRB age rating: PEGI 12+/Teen
Price: $2.00