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Can Nintendo Save the Adventure Game Genre?
Gamasutra is running an editorial wondering whether the Wii can save the adventure game genre. With the intuitive nature of first-person control and interaction the Wiimote/nunchuck combination provides, it's been an open question since the console's concept was announced whether or not the Nintendo could revive a much-beloved but sadly absent game genre. Scott Nixon writes of the future for point-and-click titles, talking about their hearty success on the DS (with Hotel Dusk and Phoenix Wright) and the requirements of design such games would make of the Wii. With word that a Wii developer for the Sam and Max series is being sought, the question isn't if but when adventure titles begin appearing on the system. Here's hoping they get a warm reception, from an audience ready for their reintroduction. Update: 02/07 01:03 GMT by Z : Fixed the link. Sorry.
I played Maniac Mansion when it was brand new (I was a kid) and it kicked off and defined a golden era of adventure games that lasted from the late '80s well into the '90s. Something like Broken Sword: Angel of Death is the spiritual successor in our present day for this genre.
Shh.
Adventure games never really died. They just got lost in the massive push toward All Things 3D(TM). I'm happy to see that companies are starting to understand that these games are still popular, in the same way that RPGs are still popular both in 2D and 3D.
:)
Translated to Marketeeringese: Good Adventure Games = $$$Ka Ching!$$$
While you're waiting, consider playing a little Stargate Adventure. It's short, but it will take you back.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I am starting to wonder if the whole 'adventure gaming is dead' notion comes from a failure to recognise that games like Zelda, Oblivion, Deus Ex and so on are, in effect, adventure games. You freely explore a large environment solving problems, frequently involving puzzles, the need to talk to characters in the world, or the need to acquire specific objects, all within the framework of a larger story. Just because it doesn't involve 2D sprites and some hand-painted backgrounds doesn't mean that what is often called an 'RPG' isn't a traditional adventure game.
However, it is a reasonable assertion that the Wiimote does offer the possibility that mouse-driven adventure games could finally work well on a console.
Read Pynchon.
Depends on they definition of adventure game. If you include RPGs (which I certainly would), I say they are as strong as they every were. Zelda, Elder Scrolls, and Final Fantasy all have great new releases. All consoles have a great adventure game. BTW, the problem with them hasn't been with the controls, so no, the Wii will not fix the plot staleness of adventure games, developers willing to take a chance on an unproven concept will.
Honestly, why does it have to be Nintendo's job to save the adventure game?
Why did Sierra (Leisure Suit Larry, Kings Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest) and Lucasarts (The Dig) ever give up on the Adventure game in the first place, and why can't they save it?
I saw this article, and frankly I'm not convinced. There's so much hype surrounding the Wii right now and all the amazing innovative things people expect out of it. If adventure games succeed on the Wii, it won't be because there was some kind of pent up demand for adventure games that wasn't being served. There have been some excellent titles over the last couple of years like Dreamfall and Indigo Prophecy the people just flat out ignored. Rather, if Adventure titles succeed on the Wii, I think it will be because of the excitement that surrounds that machine. Nintendo has done such an amazing job marketing this thing that people are practically falling over themselves to just to play games like Mario Party 8. Pretty much any game that comes out for the system is viewed through rose colored glasses at the moment. I suppose in that sense, it certainly could bring back the genre.
First link in the article points to a Eurogamer article about hiring a US editor. Anyone have a link to the Gamasutra article?
I'd like to see better sports and FPS adaptations. Use the nunchuck to move (turn?) and reload; use the Wiimote to aim, (turn?) and shoot.
Heck, bring ROCKET JOCKEY to the Wii!
Granted, I'm not old enough to remember any of the adventure games from the 80s, but Myst essentially defined video games for me, and I've played through the 4 sequels and abolustely loved them. Point and Click will always have a fond place in my heart, and I've been really sad to see it go.
Games like Final Fantasy and Oblivion, while they are really, really nice, just aren't the same. The basic concept of the game is different. There are puzzles yes, but they are a secondary element, instead of being an integral part of the story and experience.
No discussion of adventure games is complete without Old Man Murray.
I miss Old Man Murray.
Not a typewriter
Adventure games are not really dead, they dont even smell, in the last 2 years 10-20 of those games habe been released. They are definitely not anymore high profile, double page ad games, but they are released on a constant scale with about 20 titles per year. Thing is, nowadays those games are cheaply produced with many tools already available, so smaller studios nowadays do them (except for Nintendo who has Cing on their Payroll for the DS adventure games) they do not have to sell millions but those studios seem to survive.
Sure, Zelda, Deus Ex, and RPGs like Oblivion provide many of the same pleasures of a good adventure game. I like all of them. But you know what's meant by "adventure games" in this case. There is a strong emphasis on puzzles and a traditionally paced plot. These games are typically more slow paced with a strong focus on thinking. They have little to no emphasis on action, combat, or character skills and attributes. These are games like Zork, King's Quest, the Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, or Hotel Dusk.
Suggesting that Zelda, Deus Ex, or Oblivion are somehow replacements is as unhelpful. You might as well suggest that Oblivion is a first-person-shooter since you can shoot arrows or spells at people, or the Rainbow Six series of games is interchangable with real-time strategy games like Warcraft, since in both games your success relies on your ability to give AI controlled units commands. Sure, you can make reasonable definitions that blur those lines, but those lines are useful as they distinguish very different styles of play that different people like.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
Assassin's Creed will save the genre.
With the introduction of the Wiimote, Wii can bring back point-and-click interface gaming.
Games like Myst were appealing to a wide range of players; the beautiful graphics, interesting puzzles, and simple play style (no spells to memorize, just use your brain) made it a hit seller.
I think that could happen over again on the Wii. While it doesn't have the best graphics of this generation, I don't think it will be a stretch to move the graphics of the various Myst games to the system, since much of it, to my knowledge, is pre-rendered.
It would also be another way for Nintendo to reach out to the "non-gamer" audience. Myst doesn't involve frantic violence, movements, sexuality, or most of those other things games are usually chided for. It's simple point-and-click, point-and-click, point-and-click. A great game for parents or grandparents, aside from those nostalgic for days of yure.
(Disclaimer for following: I haven't played anything like a recent point-and-click adventure; plese correct me if I'm glaringly wrong here).
There's perhaps a case to be made that even the best point-and-click adventures have (by necessity of interface design) to lead the player somewhat.
Consider it like a GUI versus a command line; the GUI presents you with the actions you can do. In a click-and-point adventure, this translates to "presents you with all the actions you can do" and thus implies those you can't. (Unless it presents a generic action list, possibly checking off impossible actions after trying once; but how long do you want the list to be?)
A command line does neither, and so could be considered to not be "leading" the player.
(Of course, a graphical adventure could be designed to mimic the human body (hands, etc) and eyes closely, making it like real life, and avoiding leading- but quite how practical- and desirable- this is for a game is open to question.)
Actually, the point I make above is slightly disingenuous; traditional text adventures, particularly cassette-based ones that had to fit in 16KB(!) had a limited range of actions, and clearly differentiated and signposted objects, simply because the elements had to be kept clear and simple to fit into that space. But if mainstream development had continued, imagine what modern text adventures could be like; this certainly wouldn't be an issue.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
The link in the summary seems to go to something that is much less a Gamasutra article on adventure games and much more a blurb about Eurogamers hiring a US editor.
Action Adventure games such as Deux Ex and Zelda, still require much in the way of reflexes. It's not something I can easily non-gamers just getting into. However, something like Hotel Dusk (new adventure game for the DS), is something much more approachable, even by those who haven't spent years playing video games.
-- jchenx
I think Sierra's downfall may have been attributed to their later "style" of adventure games(i.e. King's quest 5, their other remakes of the early agi games and others I care to forget). I may not even speak for the majority, but the point and click, while it made the game easier to solve and less frustrating, made it too bland. I had more fun with the older text/parser games, I even prefer the older agi style vs. the sci, but that may just be the game content or the ability of the parser itself. Text parsing allowed for more easter egg type content since it was free form typing (even with the sometimes unforgiving syntax requirements). It probably was a welcome feature for many, but the games lost their zest.
- Many thanks to all the creators/testers/and SierraBBS support staff of games like King's 1-4/Space 1-3/Police Quest 1-3, [Hero's quest 1|Quest for Glory 2], (Codename Iceman, a very cool forgotten game) and of course who could forget Leisure Suit Larry 1-3.
Whatever happened to Dreamforge? Sanitarium was one of the most enjoyable adventures I have ever played. Ditto for Silver though it was technically an RPG, the linear storyline and point and click interface made it more like an uber adventure game IMHO.
Maniac Mansion was a blast. Played many many times and got nearly all the endings. Nother Awsome game from its day that would really shine would be some thing like Shadowgate. The Wii would do the game justice w/ the point click Wii interaface. Oldschool is making a come back so lets be sure to show the true Gems that made up the basis that games are made by now, not who had better marketing ploys just to sell more titles !!!
If the player saves the game and loads it up three calendar days later, will three days have gone by in the game world?
What killed them was when there were so many games that didn't use "logic" but resorted to random puzzles to cram into them. We remember the well made ones like grim fandango and sam and max but how about the other wretched sierra tittles liek space quest 6 and their lot. Thats what killed them. they may come back but in hybrid form. For instance didn't Planescape feel a lot like a poitn and click? you had to get X item to advance Y plot and repeat. It did it well but it was a lot of fetch and kill quests that made it feel very poitn and clicky.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
The Wii and the DS are quite simply the only two consoles well-suited for "point and click" adventures.
...because all I am playing these days are adventures! I can not bear mindless violent games any more...I've played so far: the Maniac Mansion, the Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max hit the Road, Indiana Jones and the temple of Atlantis, All 4 Monkey Island games, King's Quest 1 to 4, Grim Fantago and many others!
And you know what? the fun I had was tremendous, much more than killing enemy soldiers and blasting aliens. There is nothing like getting a cup of your favorite drink (coffee for me) and try to solve those puzzles!
The mouse is the best controller for adventure games, and the PC the best platform. Console games should stick to what they do best: action games. The whole point of the Wiimote is that it enhances the action experience, not acting as a mouse...
Why should be write "fewer and fewer"? Fewer and fewer people are saying "fewer and fewer" -- more and more are saying "less and less". Less and less people subscribe to the preposterous notion that there is a "correct" way to speak/write -- rather we should speak/write like the majority.
HAL - English language graduate.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
which is exactly why noone takes you english majors seriously.
I agree with this. King's Quest 8 might not have been a great game, but it took the very familiar style of puzzles found in earlier KQ games, and put them into a 3D world with bad guys to fight and lots of exploring. While a lot of the fighting was unavoidable, most of it wasn't too difficult, and there were a lot of times when there would be alternate ways to get past certain enemies.
Because of its roots in the adventure genre, the puzzles were a lot different from what you'd see in Zelda or other true action adventure games. There are a LOT of one-of items to find that did specific things to solve particular puzzles. I guess I just really like that. Zelda puzzles are more about generally useful items that are important all over the place.
Oblivion is as much of an adventure game to me as it is an RPG, if not more. It's the single most immersive way for me to sit down at my PC and just go to another living breathing world. The best part is that it's fairly open ended but has linear story lines if you like that sort of thing. I'd rather see more adventure games in the sandbox style than the Zelda style. It'd be great to see the Zelda franchise take on that type of gameplay.
The thing I remember most about Myst is how many non-gamers were into it. My sister and parents both loved that game and couldn't stand button mashers. They also like the Wii. I see a potential market here.
I think this depends heavily on the game. "Fighting" isn't a genre-defining element. Take WoW for example -- actually, KotOR works, too. There's a lot of fighting in those games, but it's not hack-and-slash so much as it is old-skool damage rolls. The cerebral qualifier you're talking about comes when you take the time to outfit your character to do the most damage you can (when it comes to combat) or up your skills (for quests, etc). In fact, now that I think about it a little more, those games are built around questing, where fighting is just the means to an end.
Anyway, my point is that the presence of a fighting element in a game isn't enough to define it in a genre.
Sony ha
Adventure games are alive and well on the PC. I just finished Safecracker and found it to be fairly enjoyable. Granted, these aren't AAA games, but they're still out there if you look around a little. http://www.amazon.com/Dreamcatcher-Interactive-Saf ecracker/dp/B000GUNAOW/sr=1-1/qid=1170882598/ref=p d_bbs_sr_1/105-9363391-4843657?ie=UTF8&s=videogame s