A Bear's Night Out

by David Dyte

Children's, Fantasy
1997

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Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(15)
4 star:
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Number of Ratings: 66
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- k42write, October 28, 2023

- gattociao, August 18, 2023

- elysee, June 5, 2023

SPAG

It's a genuinely charming premise that author David Dyte carries off with humor, and as with Ralph, that premise shapes both the plot and the puzzles in a way that makes Bear's Night Out feel fresh.

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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

ABNO is a delightful game. It is well-written and, for the most part, well-coded, including a number of details which serve to enrich the childlike, enchanted game world. For example, the television runs a very funny infomercial for a hardware z-chip, to turn your computer into "the interactive fiction machine of your dreams!" The cat's random event routines create an endearing illusion of feline unpredictability. Judiciously chosen box quotes enhance the game's sense of magic and wonder. Finally, perhaps the best touch of all, all the elements of the full score are written alliteratively: "furry fashion" for wearing your coat, "kindness to kittens" for petting the cat, etc. The combined result of all these details is a world well worth visiting by children and adults alike.

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- fartbox, May 5, 2022

- RustyBones, May 4, 2022

- Cryptic Puffin, November 29, 2021

- Pirate Gopher (Fort Worth TX), September 2, 2021

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Fluffy adventure., March 12, 2021
by Rovarsson (Belgium)
Related reviews: Slice of Life, Fantasy

A Bear's Night Out is a delightful little adventure!

After dark, while your owner is asleep, you climb (or rather bounce) out of bed. You have to make sure everything is ready for the big day tomorrow, and knowing your owner, he'll have forgotten a bunch of stuff.

The map is very small, eleven rooms in total. While exploring these rooms, there are tons of fun stuff to discover and experiment with.(Pssst, the cat is a great playmate...)

Once you have seen all the rooms, experimented to your hearts content with all the funny stuff and start dealing with the puzzles in earnest, you'll see that not everything in this game is fluffy and soft and easygoing. None of the puzzles are fiendish, but they all require thorough examining of the game-space, a good deal of planning and some real-life puzzlesolving strategies. Of course, all of this is made both harder and more fun by the fact that you're about a foot tall...

A warm and fuzzy adventure.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Impossibly Charming, August 26, 2020

This little classic is just as charming today as it was in 1997. There's a simple joy to this game, the way it remains sentimental without ever once dipping into the saccharine or the patronizingly childish. You could truly play this at any age and have a wonderful time. After all, who hasn't had a teddy bear or other stuffie that meant the world to them? Though I can't find the clip online, I remember even the rugged Jeremy Clarkson confessing to still having his childhood bear at home, saying that he wouldn't trade it for anything. This game, through its simple, kindly nature, taps into that attachment perfectly.

Several brilliant references here, and they're not only far more clever than just using some phrase, they're part of the puzzles! That's a bit risky on paper, as a total newcomer will not be familiar, but fortunately familiarity proves not to be necessary. You'll just smile a bit wider. This also has one of my favorite default responses for >d - "You tumble down, but being a soft bear, that's ok."

I will confess that one puzzle left me a bit baffled, the one leading to the dark place. Fortunately the game has a perfect in-game hint system, so I wasn't stuck. The only real complaint I have is that we never got something like this again from David Dyte.

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- mishz132, August 5, 2020

- quackoquack, June 10, 2020

- Zape, June 3, 2020

- Felix Pleșoianu (Bucharest, Romania), May 17, 2020

- Zoe Victoria (Under your bed), April 24, 2020

- Case, January 26, 2020

- erzulie, October 15, 2019

- Wanderlust, August 25, 2019

- shornet (Bucharest), October 22, 2018

- Cory Roush (Ohio), July 14, 2017

- looksharp (American midwest), May 20, 2017

- lkdc, March 14, 2017

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
An old-school game. A teddy bear explores the house of his IF-loving owner, February 3, 2016

A Bear's Night Out was nominated for an XYZZY award for Best Game in its second year. You play as a teddy bear exploring the house of your owner.

This is a classic 90's game. Tight puzzles, jokey references to other games, a real sense of atmosphere, many unexaminable objects. If you enjoyed Plotkin's or Nelson's early games, you will enjoy this game.

By the game's own count, it has 32 references to previous games, including letting you (Spoiler - click to show)play Curses!, Dungeon, and Adventureland.

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- Guenni (At home), January 24, 2016


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