Adventure!

[SpasticFuctard]

Okay, well maybe not Adventure! per se, but I was a huge fan of the adventure style games that were a staple of the video game industry through the 80's and into the 90's ranging from pretty much every Infocom game ever to the last real one I played which was Grim Fandango. What the hell happened to this genre (I cant really count Myst and the like here as they lack the story driven interface) and what are some of your all time favorites?

Mine are:

Quest for Glory I: So you want to be a hero?
Grim Fandango
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

SF

[Blendo75]

The genre is still alive but there arent many releases. If you want something like Quest for Glory I'd recommend The Longest Journey. My fiancee and I were playing it for a while and it's very similar to those old Sierra games except it has more of an adult-themed slant. Also it has a much deeper storyline than the older sierra games - it has some VERY long conversations.

[SoulBlazer]

Longest Journey is probaly the best one to come out in recent years. The sequel is being worked on also.

I see lots of bargin adventure games at Wal-Mart, but I don't know how those actually are.

[Griking]

I loved the Infocom games and I still have my complete collection of them. My favorites were Planetfall, and Sorcerer.

Other favorites from the past were the Sierra classics such as Leisure Suit Larry. (BTW, the new PS2 LSL looks like shit). Legend made some good games. Spellcasting x01 series was my favority of theirs. The Kyrandia series was good. Also, I used to love an old adventure called Transylvania which was made by Penguin software. They eventually changed their name to Polarware.

[digitalpress]

I used to enjoy those text and text-with-stills adventures a lot, too. Recently I tried going back to one of the Telarium C64 games (I believe it was Amazon) and they're still fun to play. I have definitely become a less patient gamer over the years, though. The loading on this was horrifying - but back then it was just "status quo". Think about how many years of your life were wasted waiting for a diskette or cassette-based game to load!

Another game I'm fond of in this genre is Shadowgate. I have yet to try the GBA versions but I'd go back and play the originals anytime.

[SpasticFuctard]

The sorcerer games (Enchanter, Sorcerer and ...?) were fantastic, I just bought the Infocom Fantasy and Humor packs a little while ago from Activision and they're stil great fun.


SF - Cast Gnusto on Glorph

[Sotenga]

Shadowgate, Deja Vu, Uninvited, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Maniac Mansion, and Sam and Max Hit the Road. That last one I played all the time when I was a real little guy. Good times... good times.

[Alex Kidd]

Another game I'm fond of in this genre is Shadowgate. I have yet to try the GBA versions but I'd go back and play the originals anytime.

Do you mean the GBC version? or is there a GBA version as well?
I have the GameBoy Color version... I've never played it on any other platform but this one is terrible...

I love adventure games, but there is one fatal flaw that can destroy them and Shadowgate (at least the GBC version) has it.
I like adventure games where they give clues and hints and little drops of information, read between the lines sorta thing and then you take what you've learned and try to implement it into the gameplay.

Then there's the other kind, wherein you are presented with a problem, you have no idea how to solve it, and there's no information anywhere. So what do you do? [use] every item you have with said problem. 50% of them will probably lead to your untimely demise, the other 49% just give the defualt "those items can't work together" message, with one final item being the the one that does the trick. If you use very item to no avail, don't bother to stop and think about what might work, just wander and find more items and then try them... and repeat.

Alex Kidd

[Jorpho]

Syberia was another recent adventure game with an upcoming sequel. Another recent (although relatively unknown title) was Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths. Runaway: A Road Adventure just came out a few weeks ago.

My favorite adventure games website is Four Fat Chicks, which you might recognize from GameTZ. There are frequently many up-to-date reviews available there.