While there have been quite a number of diverse mystery-oriented games on the Switch, few have been as smartly-written and different as Overboard. Leaning on a great mix of intrigue, humor, and terrific dialogue options, it simply sucked me in and thoroughly entertained me for a few hours while I worked my way through it. Expelled, which is made by the same developer, is absolutely a worthy successor to that formula, and is very similar, but also has some new tricks up its sleeve that set it apart. Whether it is the better of the two will likely be left for each player to decide though.

In it, you’ll play the part of Verity, a young woman who has a major problem: that she’s suspected of throwing a fellow student through a stained glass window. Unsurprisingly, this results in her being expelled from school and needing to have a very difficult conversation with her Dad. It’s in the retelling that you’ll be operating, working through Verity’s “memory” of events in a variety of ways to unwind what really happened and to ultimately avoid being kicked out of school.

While the general format for how this works is similar to Overboard, there’s no doubt that it works differently. First, given that the events happened over the course of a school day, there’s more structure in place for where people are and what’s happening, as well as more of a sense of urgency as time more visibly continues to march on while you weave your way through different classmates and choices. Second, you’ll pretty quickly come to understand that Verity is a bit more complicated as your narrator, and until you begin to push her to make decisions in certain ways you won’t truly unlock her “powers” that you’ll need to make more headway. This felt a bit unintuitive, but it did make for a nice surprise, and certainly made for more spicy dialogue choices, which added to the fun.

Trying not to give anything more away, since discovery is a big part of what makes the game so unique, I’ll say that even while having much in common with Overboard, Expelled still packs in some surprises. While I felt like I had more fun with the premise of Overboard, and somehow felt more in tune with how to be successful with it, I warmed to Expelled the more I played it. I can easily see where different people may prefer either one, depending on their tastes, but both are undoubtedly an interesting (and often amusing) way to spend a few hours.