The Adventures of Willy Beamish is an adventure game for Sega CD that uses a point-and-click interface. It centers around an eight-year-old protagonist, Willy Beamish, whose irreverent life goal is to navigate daily life while evading adult-imposed constraints. Gameplay involves solving a variety of puzzles, which ensure his progression, while combating potential punishment such as being grounded. Unique to this game is the condition of in-game time progressing even during a player’s inactivity, necessitating timely puzzle resolution. Additionally, a distinctive feature includes a bar that measures Willy's relationship with his parents, influenced by the outcomes of scenarios he encounters. The game ends if this bar fills completely, denoting Willy being sent to a military school.
Willy Beamish is a kid who likes to goof off and have fun. Naturally all the grown-ups get in the way by making him go to school, making him clean his room, etc. But now that's school's out for the summer, Willy is determined to have a good time and maybe even have his pet frog win the frog jumping contest. However Willy has a habit of getting into trouble, and naturally that means it will be a challenge to get out of it.
The Adventures of Willy Beamish is a point-and-click graphical adventure. You play Willy Beamish, an eight year-old kid who is just trying to get through life without losing his lunch money. But he'll have to deal with parents, teachers, babysitters and bratty sisters. The player must solve different puzzles to ensure Willy can progress, get out of trouble and generally avoid ending up grounded.
The in-game time progresses even if no action is taken. This means many puzzles have to be solved in a certain time frame or rely on being in the right place at the right time. A special aspect of this game is a bar which shows Willy's relationship to his parents. It gets affected by the way certain situations are resolved, e.g. it increases if Willy refuses to play with his sister, and when it is full they send Willy to a military school and the game is lost.