Sherlock Holmes and the Amazing Zoda Deduction

ST2 is one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played, but some of the chapters were unquestionably weird. The Sherlock scenario below is a perfect case of just how far the writers were willing to stretch your suspended disbelief.

Hey Holmes, I'm Mike. That had better be a bubble pipe or Nintendo will sue you.

Gadzooks! A robbery! You haven't been here more than a few minutes, and Sherlock's already got half of the mystery solved for you.

Now this is annoying. You're led to believe that Zoda is an awe-inspiring alien leader, and only you could stop him (and you did, in ST1.) Yet Sherlock already knows exactly what Zoda-X is planning! You didn't even know there was a Zoda-X. I guess maybe clones can't cover up as well as the originals can.

The game's a foot? I thought it was a box. Anyway, note how Sherlock cleverly deigns to let you go chasing Zoda-X through the sewers while he "cuts him off." The point of cutting someone off is to surprise-attack the quarry, catching them off guard. What's Sherlock gonna do, use his magnifying glass to pinpoint the light from the streetlamp on Zoda-X and burn a hole in his cape? Wouldn't Mike be the more logical cut-off choice?

Once you get into the sewers, the game stops trying to pretend it's a Sherlock Holmes adventure. At least, I don't think Sherlock ever ran into mutant rats on any of his adventures.

Your first meeting with Zoda-X results in a battle with this big blob of alien-morphing matter. It sits around and hopes you fall in by way of a mistimed jump from one of the sinking tiles around it. I don't get why Zoda-X doesn't fight you here himself. He could sit in the corner and shoot skulls at you until you finally stopped caring and jumped in. (The fact that all three Zodas don't just attack all at once is never brought up. Neither is the fact that Mike has never ever learned to swim.)

Zoda-X has boots. And he runs pretty darn fast. This isn't an interesting pic on its own, but when you check the next one...

...You'll note that Zoda leaves webbed footprints that are walking-pace distance apart! Now, I can understand that maybe he's just a fast waddler, but why would he leave footprints and not bootprints? Heck, why isn't he just floating like he floated over the water when he left the giant blob behind?

There's those boots again! Also, during the battle, he just teleports around the room. Why didn't he just teleport right out of the sewer as soon as Mike went down there after him?

Right before he dies, Zoda-X transforms into the Zodasaur (from the first game) and promptly explodes. That Zodasaur looks a lot tougher than Zoda-X was. Why didn't he just transform right away and bite Mike's head off? (Again, the question of the three-Zoda team attack should be brought up; they all have transformations, so they could all be killing Mike with their various special attacks.)

And here's Sherlock, waiting in cutoff position, smelling clean as a rose. Meanwhile, Mike has just been crawling through sewers and fighting rats and aliens. We won't be extrapolating on what he must smell like.

Now you tell Sherlock all about the Tetrads and Zoda and all that. Note that this is the entirety of what you tell Sherlock that he hasn't learned already (after all, he told you the name Zoda-X.)

When I first read this, I laughed out loud. How in the hell did Sherlock get that one figured out? This guy is brilliant! There's not a shred of convincing evidence to support this theory, yet Sherlock fires away with his far-out triple-clone theory!

Worst of all: Leonardo da Vinci later reveals that Sherlock was exactly right! Somehow, he solved an intergalactic timespace conspiracy with just a tetris block and a story from a teenager in a jeanjacket! Luckily, this was two chapters later, when I had already decided "Heck with it, at least the puzzles are good" and hardened my resolve to finish the game. (Sharp watchers will note that Leo blinked when I snapped this shot. Damn my modern flash photography.)