Pixelate:Issue 12/Old Games
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== Old games review 1 - The Secret Of Monkey Island == ~ Adrian Danis (aka RamboBones)
Contents |
Introducation
What was that in the title? Old games?!?!? I DON'T WANT OLD GAMES MOMMY!!! Okay, guess you get the idea, yes this column is all about old games. Each issue of Pixelate I'll be reviewing an old game that I've been playing recently. The purpose of this is to remind game developers, like myself, of some of the cool things that old games have done, that are forgotten or are just not done anymore due to the want for all those polygons. In this issue I'll be reviewing The Secret Of Monkey Island
Legal crap
I don't believe I could do any legal infringement by writing a review of a game but... you never know so I'd just like to say now that ANY legal infringment that this article may do is entirely unintentional, thankyou.
Overview
The Secret Of Monkey Island is one of those adventure games where you have a side/top view and you walk the main character around, interact with objects and characters and things. Think of Kings Quest and those style of games. Unlike some of the older style of this game you don't have to type stuff in, you can simply select the action you want to do. Although there is a somewhat archaic interface, the game itself plays very nicely.
Graphics
Although 320x200 graphics are used at 256 colours the graphics still look very nice. The artwork is very well rendered and some very nice palette changing effects. Yes the graphics are a bit old and you could definately do better with higher resolutions these days
Game play
This is what this style of game is all about, game play. There is not much that is annoying about this game, the only annoying thing might be some of the really difficult puzzles. Unlike in games like Kings Quest 5,6 and 7 you very rarely die, in fact I played the entire game without dieing once. The lack of dieing makes the game alot more fun because you're not constantly on edge and you can simply relax and look around alot more easily. You also don't have to listen to boring dialog that you've heard fifty times before and can merely skip it.
Story line
Well being an adventure game it'd be pretty crap without a damn good storyline. The only way I can describe the storyline in this game is incredible, in my opinion it puts the storyline in games like Space Quest and Kings Quest to shame, although only just ;), and it is a rather biased opinion. The complexity of the puzzles in The Secret Of Monkey Island are also second to none. The puzzles are spread out and can sometimes be very complex, Kings Quest puzzles tended to be rather more local and didn't have as many parts that overlapped into lots of other puzzles.
What you can learn
Now that the useless trivia is over, what can you take from this game to make modern games better. Well mainly I'd have to say the thing you can take out is the puzzles. Okay, now obviously you can't just put the style of puzzles used in The Secret Of Monkey Island in to any old game, most certainly not FPS game or RTS games. Howerver, I personally think more 'intelligent' games are needed. Kings Quest 8: The Mask Of Eternity attempted to put this style of game into a more modern setting and in my opinion they nearly suceeded, the actual game was excellent but there weren't enough complex puzzles. Another small point that I'd like to say is that The Secret Of Monkey Island has managed to incorporate combat in a very excellent way. Now some of you might see it as a bit silly but it shows that combat can be done in a fun way that STILL requires thought power and not how fast you are with the mouse, don't forget that.
Conclusion
Okay, so maybe you think this is just a boring look at a boring old game finished of by a rant of some guy. Well if you think that I'm sorry, but if you didn't then I encourage you to think about what I've said. Remember, these games were loved when they came out, and alot of people that don't care about graphics still love them, so chances are that if you made a modern version, that would be loved as well.
Well this has been the first release of this column, I hope you like it :)
