Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour has a good hook because Gunter Bunt is such an unlikely recruit. He is not introduced as a hardened operative; he is an espionage fan whose magazine competition entry turns into a real assignment. That makes the familiar adventure-game routine—examining things, collecting items, and trying combinations—feel appropriately playful rather than overly serious.

This is a classical point-and-click adventure built around the usual commands: look, take, use, and the rest. You choose them with the right mouse button, while the game keeps the action on full-screen locations. If you grew up on DOS adventures, the rhythm will be instantly comfortable: inspect the scene, pick up what seems useful, then figure out where an item belongs.

The strongest reason to try it is that old-school puzzle cadence. It asks you to slow down and think in adventure-game terms instead of pushing you through a spy plot at speed. That can also be where frustration sets in if you want direct objectives or fast feedback; this is for the kind of evening when clicking around and testing ideas is the point, not an obstacle between set pieces.

Graphics

The graphics are cartoony, matching the broad comic premise of an ordinary fan abruptly becoming an agent. Full-screen scenes keep the focus on Gunter and the objects you need to investigate, while the right-click command selection follows the familiar graphic-adventure style.

Story

Its story knows exactly how ridiculous its central conceit is, and it benefits from that. A fan of the magazine Top + Secret receives an unexpected recruitment message, some spy gear, and an assignment far bigger than he seems prepared for. The tone is light from the start, which is a much better fit than trying to turn this premise into hard-edged espionage.

Gunter’s mission is straightforward: find four Magic Squares, ancient Aztec artifacts, and rescue another agent who disappeared while searching for them. That is a solid adventure-game framework because it gives the puzzle hunt a tangible goal beyond simply wandering from screen to screen.

The Ritter Sport connection makes the game an unusual artifact, but the premise is at least integrated into a knowingly goofy commercial adventure rather than hidden behind a generic spy story. If you can enjoy branded oddities from the DOS era, the mixture of chocolate marketing, Aztec artifacts, and amateur espionage is part of the curiosity.

Overall Experience

Agent XXL und das Geheimnis der Quadrate is a niche recommendation, but not an empty one. Its selling point is the collision of a recognizable 1990s point-and-click format with a premise so specific that it could only come from this era: a branded German spy adventure starring an overenthusiastic contest winner.

Come to it for a compact dose of command-driven puzzle solving and cartoon espionage, not because you expect a modern reinvention of the genre. The LucasArts influence gives it an approachable shape, and Gunter’s absurd promotion to agent provides enough personality to make the artifact hunt more memorable than its advertising pedigree suggests.

The payoff is mostly historical and tonal. If you enjoy digging into forgotten DOS adventures, especially European releases with strange commercial origins, this one is worth a look. Everyone else may find the appeal too dependent on patience for traditional adventure puzzles and affection for the period.

Retro Replay Score

6.8/10