Adventure games: Six old-school adventures that hardly anyone knows about
So many point & click adventure games came onto the market in the 90s that some real gems were lost. Heise online has fished them out again.
There is plenty of magic in the world of Kyrandia - among other things, players can transform into a flying horse.
(Image: Westwood Studios)
Every adventure game fan knows the Monkey Islands and Space Quests of this world. But to the left and right of the LucasArts and Sierra greats, there has always been a gigantic universe of small and large point-n-click adventures that didn't get quite as much spotlight. heise online presents six old-school brain-twisters that have been unfairly overlooked by many.
"The Legend of Kyrandia" (1992)
Before the release of the all-overshadowing real-time strategy mega-hit "Command & Conquer", Westwood Studios (originally Westwood Associates) was primarily known as a role-playing game company that delivered excellent dungeon hacking games such as the first two parts of the "Eye of the Beholder" series (1991) or "Warriors of the Eternal Sun" (1992). But the studio, founded in 1985 in Las Vegas by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle, never stuck to just one genre and also produced educational games ("Donald's Alphabet Chase", 1988), action titles ("A Nightmare on Elm Street", 1989) - and point-n-click adventures!
The first representative of this genre appeared in the late summer of 1992, bearing the full name "Fables & Fiends: The Legend of Kyrandia - Book One", and enchanted from the very first second: The wonderfully pixelated intro presented cozy landscapes and softly animated characters, played cleverly with foreground and background sharpness, and showed right from the start why the former court jester Malcolm is a quite excellent villain.
In terms of operation, the Westwäldler took an impressive new approach: away from the verb interfaces of the competition and towards a simple one-button operation, which the competition would only discover for themselves much later. Although this caused a few problems, above all the absence of multiple-choice dialogs, it allowed players to completely immerse themselves in the magical world of Kyrandia.
In terms of content, there were a few sticking points: Some silly puzzles like the gemstone altar or the frustration-busting (and requiring patient check-paper card-drawing) snake grotto seem out of date today. But the simply wonderful presentation, the child's play and the lovable characters make it easy to overlook these anachronisms. Just under a year after the original release, a CD version followed with English voice-overs throughout, various bug fixes and a slightly easier snake grotto. In addition, two sequels were released in 1993 and 1994 respectively: the excellent "Hand of Fate" and the unfortunately very forgettable "Malcolm's Revenge". All parts are available on GOG for very little money.
The Legend of Kyrandia (1992) (9 Bilder)
(Bild: Westwood Studios )
"Flight of the Amazon Queen" (1995)
In the 1990s, the Australian game developer scene was almost as extensive as the Mongolian one. One of the very few exceptions was called "Interactive Binary Illusions" and consisted mainly of buddies John Passfield and Steve Stamatiadis. These two were particularly fond of fast-paced arcade titles, which led to many nights of programming later in "Halloween Harry" (also known as "Alien Carnage"), in which you play a world savior with a flamethrower.
Passfield and Stamatiadis were also huge point-n-click fans, particularly of the adventures from Lucas, and especially of the adventures of the enterprising Dr. Henry Jones junior. The two of them wanted to create something of exactly this kind, and had wanted to do so for much longer – work on the game that would eventually become "Flight of the Amazon Queen" began in 1991 and was not completed until four years later. The result, released on Amiga and MS-DOS PCs, could never keep up with the big puzzle giants, but was a very respectable achievement by the tiny team of enthusiasts: visually clearly inspired by Lucas Arts adventures, but at the same time with a refreshingly unique graphic style, easy to use, a few daft, but altogether not too challenging puzzles, good humor – it was a really nice thing. The version released in this country even offered continuous German voice output, which was very unusual for the time. Unfortunately, the voice actors mumble at an audibly low level of professionalism.
Never mind: "Flight of the Amazon Queen" is still a lot of fun today, which is mainly due to the really lovable characters: The rough-and-tumble pilot Joe King, his loyal mechanic Sparkey, the non-stop bitching movie diva Faye Russel, Trader Bob, Amazons – this game simply has it all! And all of this is now completely free, because "Flight of the Amazon Queen" has been officially freeware since 2004 with the blessing of its developers. You only have to pay a few bucks for the slightly extended "Anniversary Edition". Available from GOG, ScummVM and Steam.
Flight of the Amazon Queen (1995) (6 Bilder)
(Bild: Interactive Binary Illusions )
Toonstruck (1996)
Anyone who remembers the great 1988 real-life comic masterpiece "Wrong with Roger Rabbit" will also vividly remember Judge Doom – the film's great villain and guarantor of spontaneous nightmares, played brilliantly by Christopher "Doc Brown" Lloyd. On this occasion, he probably gained plenty of experience in dealing with comic characters, which came in very handy eight years later. Because "Toonstruck", developed by Burst Studios (later EA Pacific, now EA Los Angeles), once again placed him as a real person in a bizarre cartoon world in which he not only encounters wacky characters such as the royal butler (an oversized, dust-mopping foot), but also "Wirrwah" (the royal inventor bird) or "G.B. Wolf", the most polite, gluttonous beast far and wide. Not to mention Count Nefarious and King Hugh, originally voiced by Tim Curry and David Ogden Stiers.
Lloyd takes on the role of cartoonist Drew Blanc (called "Mal Block" in the German version), who is not only in a creative crisis, but is also sucked into the cartoon world of "Cutopia" together with his cynical creation "Flux Wildly". The way back home is paved with sometimes completely insane encounters, aggressive squirrels, wonderfully bizarre characters and of course, as this is still a point-n-click adventure, lots and lots of puzzles. Despite the wacky theme, they are relatively relaxed and require less thinking outside the box than you might think.
Consequently, "Toonstruck" is not an overly challenging adventure (not least thanks to its very simple controls), but rather one that invites you to simply enjoy it, sink into the stylish and completely crazy cartoon world and celebrate the wacky humor, which works well even in the somewhat bland German version. Available on GOG and Steam.
Toonstruck (1996) (9 Bilder)
(Bild: Burst Studio/EA)
