It is fortunate that the gameplay is very simple to understand and play. The story revolves around the misfortune of the Baudelaire children as their parents were killed in a fire and their new guardian is the mysterious Count Olaf. The children are Violet, who is the eldest and most inventive, Klaus, who has good intentions and puzzle solver, and baby Sunny, who seems to be always biting on something small and hard. It was fortunate that the children managed to persuade their banker, Mr. Poe, of the Count's dastardly deeds. So, off they went to newer guardians who were kinder, namely Uncle Monty and Aunt Josephine. However, it is most unfortunate that Count Olaf does not give up easily. With his gloomy troup of theatre players, they hunt down the Baudelaire children and plots ways to obtain their rich fortune.

There are 2 game modes to this puzzle game : the Deduction Junction and the Swap Monster. It is fortunate for the orphans to have you to help save the day by solving the mystery of how they were hit upon a series of unfortunate events.

For both game modes, you find yourself looking at an overview of the house with some items that were used in the unfortunate events and both the good and evil characters. The good are the 3 Baudelaire children, Mr. Poe the banker, Uncle Monty with his eccentric yet gentle ways and kind yet shy Auntie Josephine. Count Olaf lead a troupe of nameless theatre performers who went by the description of the White-Faced lady, the Hook-Handed Man, the Tall Bald Man, the Very Large Person and the Very-Important-Looking Man with Warts. Through a series of clues, you start to click on the characters or the evidence left behind in each room.

In Deduction Junction mode, the rooms are filled either with all the characters or all the evidence. To identify how a series of Unfortunate Events happened, you are given some clues as to who or what is next to each other. Click on the clues in the Clues Notebook (right-hand side) to get the eye-witness account from one of the characters. Even gurgling baby Sunny has her baby talk translated in-game. Very fortunate for you and her. An example would be from Sunny, "Pleek!", which translates to "While I was looking for something hard to chew on, I saw that Klaus was somewhere to the left of the Filthy Foyer, on the same floor". Using the mouse, right-click on any picture to eliminate them from the room and left-click the picture once you're very sure of what is in the room. An indication would be the picture expanding and contracting very fast. Now, a room can have a character, some evidence or both at any one time. Count Olaf is definitely tricky.

In Swap Monster mode, you swap two characters / objects based on clues from the notebook. Although it says in-game that this mode is for young children, unfortunately it's actually much much tougher than the Deduction Junction mode. The reason for this unfortunate conclusion is due to the limited number of swap moves allowed. Whenever you exceed the number of moves, you get the same picture of Count Olaf jeering at your efforts.

In both game modes, you have 10 levels to get through, with 4 sublevels each and a bonus quiz questions about the Series of Unfortunate Events. The higher up you progress, the more unfortunate you are as you are now confronted with more objects in a room, more rooms, more characters and more dismal rooms. And, a wrong click is enough to make Count Olaf jump up and down with glee.

Overall, the game is pleasant, albeit you have to listen to the spooky music. It creates the chilling atmosphere with it's eerie childish music and the wicked laugh from Count Olaf is enough to frighten the unsuspecting. Still, it's a nice game for young children with the colorful rendition of the characters and objects. Only the room looks dismal, but even then the details in the room are vivid. You can select the difficulty level from Training Wheels, to Rather Difficult to the challenging Pure Evil.

And, it is unfortunate that this review is coming to an end for A Series of Unfortunate Events the casual game.