Anyone today can pick up one of the old Monkey Island games and appreciate it for its whimsy, humour, and colourful cast of well-rounded characters. It's a game that you'd happily just traipse around in, listening to the stories and quips of its denizens. But try to progress with the story, you'll face puzzles that turn you into a monkey at a typewriter. The specific conditions in which puzzles had to be completed could have you retreading your footsteps for literally hours. For example, in one sequence where you need to pry open a case, an NPC offers to help you out. At that point, you just have to click various combinations of objects in various places until you eventually hit the right one (in this case, you need to 'Use' the crowbar on your buddy, so that he can then use it on the case). This type of 'try combining this object with another object in the hope of triggering an unforeseeable action' was all too common in classic adventure games, but where the 90s gamer - your 90s self - had the patience for it, today's gamer would've quickly moved on to a game with a more linear sense of cause-and-effect (for example, shoot a man in the face, man's face explodes).
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
