10 Video Games That Make You Feel Like A Genius

First-time players of The Secret of Monkey Island were baffled to see there were no levels or conventional enemy encounters. Unlike most titles at the time, you couldn't progress by blasting everything in sight, stomping on baddies, or hopping across floating platforms. Instead, you had to think, explore, hunt for hints and experiment.

Although many point-and-click adventures rely on the classic strategy of tapping on absolutely everything, Monkey Island focused on interacting with the NPCs to uncover clues.

Now, this strategy wasn't anything new at the time. (Castlevania II, which came out three years prior, relied on the same mechanic.) But Monkey Island stood out, since it was among the first titles to make use of dialogue trees while speaking to computer players. You wouldn't get hints just by talking to the locals - you had to ask the right questions. As a result, you can only advance by paying attention to what you've been told.

The Secret of Monkey Island may not have been first of its kind, but it probably was the first game you played where you had a pen and paper on hand, to keep tabs on vital info and clues.