Udvarnoky

I believe it was, although the Talkie version was released a few months after the floppy disk version. I believe Fate of Atlantis was the one LucasArts adventure game that was written without the writers knowing it would eventually be voiced. And of course, the Monkey Island remakes are examples of retroactive voicework as well.

Yeah, I don't think Costume Quest or Stacking suffered from text-only dialog, but I would have missed voicework here.

I similarly bought Majora's Mask when it came out, couldn't get into it, then returned to it some indeterminate time later more out of stubborness than anything and was blown away. It is definitely not a game that rewards without your putting some considerable time and patience into it upfront, but those rewards are huge. Majora's Mask is the kind of game a company can only get away with making after Ocarina of Time. The funny thing about Majora's Mask is the way its Three Day conceit oddly restores some gradually lost Zelda staples. Because you lose all your rupees, arrows, bombs, and other replenishables when you restart the cycle, you actually have to go out and ammo up. The money situation is addressed with the bank system, but that's mostly for huge purchases or claiming the rewards you get for reaching certain account balances. When you want to make some purchase up to 100 rupees, it's preferable and easy enough to just go work for it rather than withdraw. That means the game encourages you to go out into the overworld and slash enemies and bushes and stuff for rupees and items, just like you had to do in the old games. As good as Ocarina of Time is, it failed in this regard. While Hyrule was a satisfyingly huge overworld, it was bizarrely scarce, especially during the day. An unfortunate trend that started around Ocarina is an excessive generosity with rupees and items - when you need to buy something, it's rare that the game hasn't cleverly found a way to make sure you have the money for it. If you're about to access an area that requires bombs or arrows to proceed, the game makes sure that nearby chests contains them or nearby enemies will spit them out. And I get that, and it's good design, but there's something kind of ridiculous about the way shops that sell just regular items (hearts, arrows, bombs, seeds, etc.) are almost completely superfluous in Ocarina. This isn't some lament about the repudiation of over-the-top grind - I don't think the series was ever guilty of that, except maybe when you're desperately trying to level up toward the end of Zelda II - but fighting enemies and abusing the environment to build up your stash is in my mind a fundamental part of Zelda, and it's been somewhat forsaken. It doesn't have to be some unbearable slog - you can get your wallet, quiver, and bomb bag filled up in a matter of minutes in Majora's Mask. Killing that thieving bird thing in the southern part of Termina gets you 200 rupees, and if you've got the Goron mask you can roll around the field and collect the fuck out of most anything you need in no time flat. And because the game presents this need, the overworld itself is teeming with creatures, in stark contrast with Ocarina. There are dodongos in this game's overworld, for Pete's sake. And restoring the original overworld music doesn't hurt either. In Majora's Mask, the trading post actually has a purpose. When you've smacked the owl statue in front of the latest temple and are ready to embark on it, you travel back to Day 1, slow down time, quickly get some money, buy the necessary wares, then warp to the temple entrance, ready to rock. There's something kind of satisfying about that. I've always felt that Link being rich and well-supplied comes a bit too naturally nowadays.

Majora's Mask is a naturally polarizing game because it's such a deviation, and it definitely betrays the "nonexistent barrier of entry" design maxim that the series otherwise adheres to pretty faithfully.

For the record, I've never played a Zelda game I didn't think was pretty great at minimum. Like Mario, it's one of the most frighteningly consistent series ever in that every major installment is quality. (And that qualifier is simply to account for stuff like the CD-i games and Mario Is Missing! or something. Zelda II, the Capcom Gameboy games, Majora's Mask or whichever are supposedly the black sheep are all righteous.) Whenever people name their favorite Zelda - and the nominations run the whole gamut - it's impossible to think they're wrong just because each and every game is so strong. (See also: favorite LEC adventure game.) I agree with Henroid in that a) the article in question is largely wrongheaded and the first games and what followed them simply represent different, rather than absolutely good or bad, design philosophies. But some of the observations being made here regarding sense of freedom and discovery are completely valid. I personally think that modern Zelda is right to err on the side of clear goals in propelling the player through the main quest. After all, there's no shortage of tedious sidequests in the newer games if that sort of thing floats your boat. The truth is collecting everything in Zelda 1 never gets nearly as ridiculous as finding all 100 gold skulltulas in Ocarina of Time, accumulating the FUCKING pictograph figures in Wind Waker or tracking down all 52 heart pieces in Majora's Mask (there might be even more in Twilight Princess but happily I stopped attaching my ego to getting 100% in a game by that junction). I could literally exhaust Zelda 1 in an afternoon - do not doubt me - whereas I could never do that for the modern games. Just something to consider. I would also point out that the relatively recent (and admittedly an intentional curveball) Majora's Mask, possibly my favorite Zelda, has probably the highest learning curve of the whole series, or is at least the hardest to get into. I can't comment on Skyward Sword, which is apparently relentless in its linearity, but I'm looking forward to digging into it. I played about fifteen minutes before my free time entered the fantasy genre, and when I return to it someday I refuse to let this thread color my predisposition. If I dislike it, that will be a first, and thanks in advance for letting me blame you guys if that happens.

To me the real takeaway there is how much the gaming audience expanded since the time when adventure games charted highly. I think the same ten people have always loved adventure games, it's just that the population increased from 15 to 1500 in the past 25 years.

It is impossible for me to fully unweave nostalgia from my perspective on this since Zelda 1 is such a cornerstone of my formative gamer years. It was the first game of that kind of scope that I completed and it was hugely satisfying, impactful experience for me. I beat it as a kid as the result of, I think, literally, years of hacking away at it at my grandmother's house. By the time I finished it I knew every square inch of the world and the location of every grotto, just by sheer grind and repetition and dying one thousand times. I am disconcertingly confident that if you started a new game and blindfolded me I could direct Link to the magic bracelet. I don't think I could get into Zelda 1 if I had played it for the first time at my age, and I don't know whether that should sadden me or not. I think for better or worse I did actively enjoy bombing every wall of rock and burning every bush for the meager reward of a black square or downward staircase taking its place, but the idea of exploring this expansive world and uncovering stores/rupees/heart containers/belligerent homeowners by poking at everything was still a novelty for me at the time. There is something innately satisfying about finding secrets, and I think on some level the original game is all about that. To be honest, when I played Link to the Past for the first time and realized that every bombable spot was clearly designated my impulse was, "So what's the point?" As has been pointed out, there's something to be said for the appeal of throwing the player into this huge world with very little in the way of boundaries and just saying, "Figure it out." I actually have to remind myself that in the original game, finding the labyrinths themselves was actually part of it. In the later games you more or less know exactly where you need to go next and the focus is more on the very thoughtfully designed obstacles (often tailored specifically to Link's abilities and range of items at that junction in the game) to challenge your path there. I think it was probably necessary for the games to get more guided as the series went forward, but I think it's a valid observation that there are lessons to learn from the first game as far as freedom and discovery and just giving the player more opportunities to get in way over his head. There's still a fair degree of Find It Yourself in modern Zelda, but more often than not it's limited to sidequests, heart containers and upgrades. I think that's why I responded so well to that last act of Wind Waker. It felt very retro to force you to effectively just go exploring the overworld in order to collect all the Triforce shards.

Bearing witness to Double Fine's goal being met within eight to nine hours was like absorbing a hail of bullets from the machinegun of love.

I don't think it was unsellable so much as it was a weird game to bestow the AAA treatment on. Why would you make a love letter to Herzog Zwei, however amazing and unique the world, however extensive the soundtrack and however high profile the celebrity talent, a game that needs to sell a million units to break even? I love the single player campaign for the exploration and the mythology stuff and I loved the surreal insanity that was the game's (and Tim's) relentless presence in the media, but it's pretty clear that Brutal Legend was much more fit to be an XBLA game centered around the stage battles than a big budget holiday title that had to be marketed in a misleading way.

I greatly enjoyed Jurassic Park: The Game, but I have to give it a 0/10 anyway due to the fact that the episode menus were not guided tours by Mr. DNA.

Anyone get this yet? Is it awesome?

Bought. Thanks for sharing the opinions!

Interesting thing about the "new" trailer Double Fine is using for Psychonauts on the Steam page and revamped official site - it's actually a trailer that Tim premiered at GDC 2004 (just before Microsoft dropped the game) but was otherwise not publicly viewable until now. Some aspects of it were carried over into the one that coincided with the Majesco announcement later that year and so may seem familiar, but this is definitely a never-before-seen (to most of us) trailer that was cut together seven and a half years ago. The proof is in the last few minutes of Tim's excellent lecture about character design at the conference.

It is unfortunate for me that they chose to release the system before they had finished designing it. Of course, this follows tradition.

Showing characteristic restraint, I bought a 3DS along with Ocarina and Street Fighter IV about two hours after making my previous post. Quite pleased with my purchase so far.

Your soul earns an F minus, I'm afraid. I always wanted to get a 3DS eventually, but I've been waiting for a price cut and/or the inevitable "Lite" equivalent, not to mention some free time. Since the value of all the virtual console games being proffered to the early adopters exceeds the amount of the price cut, I am trying to figure out whether it would be more judicious to buy before or after August 12th. At the moment I'm still trying to get through my backlog of unplayed regular DS games and so find it difficult to justify a new system just yet. (And dammit, I didn't know about that new Kirby, which looks awesome.)

Man do I love Minish Cap.

I watched and loved the show, cheesy and cliche-ridden though it may have been, but I've always read that the comic isn't all that good. Can anyone here weigh in on how accurate these opinions are and if Kirkman's work is worth checking out? From my experience with The Walking Dead, it would seem to me that it's character driven enough to work as a straight-up adventure game. Not saying that going with whatever route Telltale's taking with Jurassic Park would be inappropriate either, but zombie attacks don't really take up a large percentage of the narrative based on the TV show.

The first video Drath posted is superb because it showcases the famous "Nedry's disappearing bag."

It's unfortunate that I don't have a 360, much less the accoutrement necessary to play this. Maybe it's just as well - Sesame Street is far too heavy a license for me.

I caught Black Swan today, and I have to say it was really cool of LucasArts to let Aronofsky use the Loom soundtrack so liberally. THANK YOU! GOODNIGHT!

TELLTALE IS FOLDING

My contributions: fUNbm3vO4Cg jSQ3UwxmIhY (Really any of the music from any of the NES ports of the MacVenture series would fit the bill) xeRx124RfHY While there's unfortunately no convenient way to hear it, Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island has a piece worthy of this thread that you can listen to by going to the official site, clicking Media, clicking Musik and clicking Track 3. And as far as I'm concerned, no Game Over ditty tops this one from the perspective of Degree Udvarnoky's Impressionable Four-year-old Self Was Deeply Freaked Out (which, let's face it, is the real baseline here): 1dVnTPN_8DI

It's always been about 50/50 for me. I grew up on the NES but did plenty of PC gaming as well. That ratio remains more or less the same - what's changed over the years is the amount of time I devote to games altogether, rather than between platforms. I was as hardcore as they came during my pre-adolescent years, but these days most gamers probably wouldn't consider me very far north of casual. But yeah no, it was always about an even split for me I'd say.

Agreed, the early SCUMM Humongous titles were in fact some good and well-designed kids games, which isn't much of a surprise being that they were put together by the likes of Dave Grossman along with some other developers Ron managed to coax away from LEC at the time. No one has shit-talked them. Anywho, I've been playing a little bit of DeathSpank, and I'm having fun so far. It's basically a goofy, high rent Diablo clone with a great art style and lots of dialog trees. What's not to like?