Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo To Be the Hero of the Adventure Genre?
DreamWinkle writes "If you've spent the last few years playing old King's Quest VGA updates and longing for Space Quest and Day of the Tentacle, you'll be interested to know that the Adventure genre might be facing a resurgence — at Nintendo's hand. The adventure game was killed off by the console (poor controls and too much competition), and so it's ironic that Nintendo might be able to pull it from the grave. An article at About.com looks at how Nintendo could use its virtual console to make adventure games profitable again." From the article: "The reason that adventure games are disappearing is because they don't compete well with other genres. Trying to create an adventure game that meets the graphical standards of an audience taught to expect Elder Scrolls IV makes the whole endeavor far less appealing. However, building a product to compete with Geometry Wars might be more doable. Adventure games are not disappearing because no one is buying them; they're disappearing because people are buying other types of games far more often. "
What about the multiple adventure games that appeared on the Xbox? Surely Syberia made at least enough sales to warrent a sequel.
... wrong.
In any case, saying that consoles killed-off adventure games when you can buy adventure games for a console right now is a bit
Comment of the year
The popularity of the adventure genre may come and go, but there will always be Zelda
Considering that the internet has existed as a distribution method for adventure games for...oh, over a decade now and that there hasn't been a huge resurgence, I've got my doubts here. Don't get me wrong - I love the genre and would applaud its rebirth. But when you've got a title like Sam and Max, that was close to 90% done with years of anticipation behind it...well, you lose faith. I'm not sure what it'll take to revive the genre, but we haven't hit on it yet. But on the other hand...the Wii's controller is definitely suited towards a point and click interface. ;)
Goo goo g'joob.
I don't think graphical quality is any impediment to making good adventure games that can compete. I can certainly imagine a Monkey Island game in beautiful 32-bit color at 1280x1024 resolution, with smooth professional animation. Far from being obsolete, I think computers are at a point where it's possible to do adventure games with very high-quality artwork. Realtime-rendered 3D games might be the fad right now, but realtime 3D rendering still has some visual limitations. A 2D adventure game could very well look better and handle better than most 3D games if done properly.
They've ruined so many internet searches for me. Their "articles" rarely provide any in-depth knowledge and just take up space. The major search engines should combine their forces to wipe about.com from the face of the net.
Why, oh why, is slashdot taking them as a primary source of information?
From TFA:However, the Wii's unique control allows for more complex interactions on the console, acting as a pointer.
I think that this is the main reason the Wii could work for adventure games. IMO, adventure games need some sort of pointing device. I'm talking old school adventure games, where you would point and click on things on the screen. Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, Police Quest, etc... I know it can be done differently, but that's how I remember (and like) my adventure games.
As we know, using a controller to try to control a cursor on a screen is pretty much impossible. But with the pointer aspect of the Wii controller, it can act as a mouse, which would be perfect for adventure games. Hold down the "Use" button, point at the screen and click... or Hold down the "Talk" button, point at a character and talk to them... etc. Just like using a mouse to select things on the screen.
The "Pointer" aspect is one of the main (many) reasons I'm excited about the Wii... adventure games, RTS games (Warcraft, Command and Conquer, etc), etc... Lots of new ground can be explored with the system... I can't wait.
I don't have anything to add to this discussion, but I just wanted to let you all know that I'm buying a Nintendo Wii and not a PlayStation 3.
Don't worry, wii understand.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
Objection!!! I'd argue that Nintendo has already triggered an Adventure Game Renaissance with the Nintendo DS. I can't think of any games off hand... but I know there are some.
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Nintendo and Quantic Dream need to get together!! The controls in Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit without boobies) were really revolutionary - analog joysticks were used to open every door, press every button, and flush every toilet. A game with a good story that is interactive to this heightened degree would make a KILLING with hardcore and casual gamers alike. Graphics would almost be irrelevant in this kind of game - it could even work with a text adventure! Alternatively, they could go the Gabriel Knight 2 / Phantasmagoria route and depict real scenes with full motion video!
The truth is that the former genre is pretty much dead (to my disappointment), since apparently the standards were set so high in the past that any game that comes along and that doesn't offer 200 hours of laughter and entertainment is deemed a failure by the "critics" and the game performs poorly in sales.
As for the latter genre, well I don't think the genre is dying. As the success of Elder Scrolls shows, people are willing to pay big bucks for that kind of entertainment.
Well, let's see here. SCUMMVM added support for AGI games in the current development builds, so I've been playing Kings Quest, II, III, IV, Space Quest I, II, Gold Rush and some other golden oldies again on my desktop. Thanks to SCUMMVM 0.9 on my PSP, I've been playing The Dig and other SCUMM classics with their full talkie versions (multiGB memory sticks are great).
[UID-HeinzIntel]
Nintendo, the developers that brought us The Legend of Zelda and it's sequel. Without those two games we might not even be here disscussing the effects of the "adventure" genre.
I am what I am and thats what I am -Popeye
I would like to point out Dungeon Man 3. If you are a fan of old-school adventure games, this will provide some good laughs.
Breaking games news: Some guy on About.com thinks Nintendo is really cool.
Breaking games news: Some guy on About.com has the scoop on how Super Mario 2 .
Breaking games news: Some guy on About.com thinks the Wii's controller is really cool.
egypt urnash minimal art.
The largest known official DS Game Cards are 128 MiB (1 GiB) in capacity. Myst was bigger, but then you only have 256x384 pixels to deal with instead of 640x480, and image compression has advanced since Myst was first published. That said, you can already play many Lucasarts games on your homebrew-enabled DS through ScummVM.
Having just got a DS Lite, I'm struck by how it's just perfect for LucasArts-style graphical adventures and RPGs. You've even got a second screen you can use for maps, stats, inventory, and so on.
Plus, the sound and graphics expectations aren't ridiculous, so you can develop with a reasonable budget.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Anyone who wants adventure games should go look. However they are niche market, but the funniest thing is, there's more adventure games out there than games for the NES.
The only thing is you must get an interpreter for them, and there are many of them but they all work perfectly. The main ones are TADS, ADRIFT, and INFORM (infocom engine) but there's at least 10 major interpreters that have been used.
The only other thing is this is a niche field but it's also a free niche market that people constantly contribute too, and in addition they've changed. Adventure style games are now called "interactive Fiction" or simply IF
Please check http://www.ifarchive.org/ http://www.ifcomp.org/ for two sites. There's MANY more. They might not all be amazing, but they are still there, though less graphical than the quest series from sierra.
P.S. Quest for glory is sorely missed.
You wouldn't happen to know if they plan to add King's Quest 6, would you? That was my favorite game from all of childhood and I've never actually seen the end.
If it's not on fire, it's a software problem.
Nintendo's already revived the adventure format somewhat. "Trace Memory" and "Phoenix Wright" are basically modern adventure games, in that you go around looking for clues and solve mysteries, with an dialogue-driven story and inventory of clues, etc. I've been thinking about getting a DS because of games like that, actually.
And why does he say the console killed the adventure game? I remember the late 90's, the adventure game was killed in its home turf of PC gaming. From what I recall, FPSes, RTSes, and some niche games like the Sims began to dominate the whole industry. The genres that appealed mostly to geeks began to decline around that time. Realistic flight sims began their decline, PC RPGs were definitely out-competed by their console counterparts, and historical turn-based strategy is mostly gone, too. Monkey Island just couldn't compete with Quake II or Starcraft.
Oh, and the fact that adventure games are by their nature solitary, at a time when LAN and internet gaming was becoming popular, did not help.
I'm kinda frustrated by all the focus on 3D graphics nowadays, though. Only Nintendo seems to like using 2D grpahics, which I actually find more beautiful in most cases. I think we are still at the point in time where we care more about the novelty of 'realistic' 3D graphics than about whether artists actually make them look good. In the future, we might look back at our era and have a good laugh at all the bad, blocky, or badly-designed 3D models we put up with, while cartoon-style graphics look so much better.
maybe it's frustration with too hard puzzles, maybe other reasons... I recently discovered Siberia and I must say it's not only the most climatic hame I have played, it's overall best...
:)
Gfx: 6/19 pretty but static.
Sound: 7/10 very nice music, not much of it.
Gameplay: 5/10 at times a bit frustrating or boring.
Mood: 30/10 OMFG THIS STORY IS INCREDIBLE!!!
Final score: 12/10
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
or Dreamfall, The Longest Journey. Both are incredibly good adventure games, the graphics are outstanding, the acting is solid, and they're not overly frustrating like some games in the genre can be.
There were moments in D:TLJ where I was told to follow someone through a new area, and I felt like a hobbit, running back and forth and just trying to soak everything in as fast as I could, it was so beautiful. I'll be replaying the game just to re-visit some of the places in it. Great game, check it out if you can.
...the majority of professional[sic] WarCraft, StarCraft, etc players utilize hotkeys, trying to minimize the switching from keyboard-to-mouse. I can only begin to imagine the quick onset of intense wrist strain from moving to the left/right/top/bottom in a heated battle.
I rather prefer to play adventure games the classic way, with a keyboard. The "vocabulary" of a point-and-click game is quite limited compared to most games that allow text entry. Hell, even most old Sierra games allowed keyboard input.
I just think it's sad that the author of TFA only seems to know about a (in my eyes) limited subset of the adventure games genre. But then, how many console owners have a keyboard?
There is so much more out there in adventure-land, and it's called interactive fiction (or IF for short). Check http://www.ifarchive.org/ for more info.
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
It was my favourite KQ game. :) I've still got the CD laying around here, actually. Sadly, though, have not heard anything. But they'd be insane to not. I doubt it's a license thing. My money would be they're still working on emulation for it. Same for Space Quest 4.
If you're a subscriber, use the suggestion box to suggest it. Many features and such that customers have suggested have been implemented.
I know. SQ4 is one of my all-time favourite games. I'm also hoping GT will start getting the Lucas games - Monkey Island, Sam&Max, and so on.
I was unaware that Nintendos had a keyboard.
Not trying to troll to anyone that likes them, but most of the time adventure games are just games that lack any other system of gameplay. While some adventure games are good, the gameplay is very limited. I think most adventure games families would probably be better if they changed to an RPG-ish game play (depending on the game). I would love to see a Zelda with a TES like engine...
Great Intellect...
The problem with that reasoning is that a 2D game would actually cost more than a comparable 3D game. 3D is not more expensive than 2D. It's the other way around.
Lucasarts finally released the rights to Sam and Max (plus some of the dev team) to Telltale games - and its due for an episodic release starting sometime this fall. So maybe adventure cames can still live on at least in episodic form in this case - check out http://www.telltalegames.com/comics/samnmax