Rate the Game: Week 113

[M-A-G]

It's that time of the week again, ladies and gentlemen! We're so close to the end of this ride we can almost taste it. What other sorts of tasty games do we have left to tackle in the weeks to come? First thing first, we've got to take care of last week's full course meal, Dark Souls. Only 2 brave souls dared to tread its waters but let's see what their thoughts on their journeys end up doing for it. How about it, leaderboard?

<select><option selected="">Rate the Game Results

<option>1. (TIE) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (4.8)</option>
<option>3. (TIE) Hitman: Codename 47, Mass Effect (4.75)</option>
<option>5. Goldeneye 007 (4.72)</option>
<option>6. Super Mario Bros. 3 (4.7)</option>
<option>7. Silent Hill 2 (4.66)
<option>8. (4-WAY TIE) Chrono Trigger, Portal, Red Dead Redemption, Silent Hill 3 (4.5)</option>
<option>12. (3-WAY TIE) Mega Man 2, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (4.44)</option>
<option>15. Super Mario Bros. (4.41)</option>
<option>16. God of War (4.4)</option>
<option>17. Mega Man X (4.36)</option>
<option>18. (TIE) Metal Gear Solid, BioShock (4.33)</option>
<option>20. Perfect Dark (4.3)</option>
<option>21. (TIE) Shadow of the Colossus, The Last of Us (4.28)</option>
<option>23. Super Street Fighter 2 (4.15)</option>
<option>24. Sonic the Hedgehog (4.14)</option>
<option>25. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (4.125)</option>
<option>26. Super Mario 64 (4.07)</option>
<option>27. (TIE) Grand Theft Auto 3, The Legend of Zelda (4.06)</option>
<option>29. NBA Jam (4.05)</option>
<option>30. (13-WAY TIE) Super Mario Kart (4.0)</option>
<option>- Sonic the Hedgehog 2</option>
<option>- Super Metroid</option>
<option>- The Simpsons</option>
<option>- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night</option>
<option>- Donkey Kong Country 2</option>
<option>- Resident Evil 4</option>
<option>- Super Smash Bros.</option>
<option>- Banjo-Kazooie</option>
<option>- EarthBound</option>
<option>- Fallout 3</option>
<option>- Mirror's Edge</option>
<option>- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3</option>
<option>43. Final Fantasy 7 (3.94)</option>
<option>44. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (3.92)</option>
<option>45. Mega Man (3.89)</option>
<option>46. (3-WAY TIE) Contra, Castlevania, Devil May Cry (3.86)</option>
<option>49. Half-Life 2 (3.85)</option>
<option>50. (TIE) Half-Life, Infamous (3.83)</option>
<option>52. (TIE) SimCity 2000, Final Fight (3.8)</option>
<option>54. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (3.77)</option>
<option>55. Batman: Arkham Asylum (3.76)</option>
<option>56. (TIE) Double Dragon, Max Payne (3.75)</option>
<option>58. Tetris (3.69)</option>
<option>59. Mortal Kombat 2 (3.67)</option>
<option>60. (3-WAY TIE) Diablo, F.E.A.R., Alan Wake (3.66)</option>
<option>63. Mortal Kombat (3.65)</option>
<option>64. Doom (3.625)</option>
<option>65. StarFox (3.61)</option>
<option>66. Resident Evil (3.58)</option>
<option>67. (4-WAY TIE) Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Burnout Paradise, Dark Souls (3.5)</option>
<option>71. Dead Space (3.4)</option>
<option>72. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (3.39)</option>
<option>73. Resident Evil: Nemesis (3.38)</option>
<option>74. (6-WAY TIE) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Crash Bandicoot, Wolfenstein 3D, Left 4 Dead, Dead Island (3.33)</option>
<option>80. Gears of War (3.27)</option>
<option>81. (TIE) Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Borderlands (3.22)</option>
<option>83. (3-WAY TIE) Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Darkstalkers (3.2)</option>
<option>86. SoulCalibur (3.16)</option>
<option>87. Pac-Man (3.125)</option>
<option>88. Killer Instinct (3.11)</option>
<option>89. (TIE) Virtua Fighter, Rock Band (3.09)</option>
<option>91. (5-WAY TIE) Time Crisis, Tekken, Earthworm Jim, Metroid, Halo 2 (3.0)</option>
<option>96. Guitar Hero (2.875)</option>
<option>97. Streets of Rage (2.84)</option>
<option>98. Altered Beast (2.8)</option>
<option>99. Bayonetta (2.75)</option>
<option>100. (3-WAY TIE) Dead Rising, Gauntlet, Assassin's Creed (2.71) </option>
<option>103. Saints Row (2.66)</option>
<option>104. (TIE) Silent Hill, The Sims (2.6)</option>
<option>106. Tomb Raider (2.55)</option>
<option>107. Halo: Combat Evolved (2.5)</option>
<option>108. (TIE) Twisted Metal, Crackdown (2.42)</option>
<option>110. Golden Axe (2.33)</option>
<option>111. Gran Turismo (2.3)</option>
<option>112. Ghosts n' Goblins (2.14)</option>
</select>

A 3.5 splits it down the middle and Dark Souls ends up being able to get over the hump fairly well. We commend you for being so bold to dare to accept its challenges.

Time for a new dare, though. Week 113 needs a game to rate so let's get to it. What's next for us, bowl?

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/z0bX24Gbm1kPWOBBDE" width="480" height="222" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/z0bX24Gbm1kPWOBBDE">via GIPHY</a></p>

Well, damn. I know we've gone back to the distant past for some of these titles but how about we go plundering the distant PC gaming past? It's the early days of floppy disks and point-and-click as this week we take a gander at LucasArts' The Secret of Monkey Island! This game was pirates before pirates were cool...or was it? What do you all think? Let's cue up the shanties and brew the grog and prep our insults as we share our thoughts on this entry. Until next week!

[drave]

:(

[ClockShot]

Never was interested in anything Monkey Island.

[M-A-G]

Well, if nothing else, this breaks my streak as far as games I haven't played. This was one of the first games I ever played on a computer, right up there with Oregon Trail.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Haven’t played it.

[Destor]

not my favorite poin and click but very memorable

[Big Vic]

I played the 3rd so I will rate that..... Realllllly want to give it a 3.5 but since that's not available I'll do 3.

[M-A-G]

The lost art of insult sword fighting must live on!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A little something we've been working on for the past 2 years in complete secrecy.<a href="https://t.co/qwmxpYjpe5">https://t.co/qwmxpYjpe5</a></p>&mdash; Ron Gilbert (@grumpygamer) <a href="https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/1510995575025528836?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 4, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Lock Jaw]

Never played it.

I was more a King's Quest kinda guy

[M-A-G]

Never played it.

I was more a King's Quest kinda guy

Forgot all about King's Quest. It basically set the template for these kinds of games in the years that followed.

[Destor]

maniac mansion is my favorite point and click

[M-A-G]

This little mini-doc is a nice look at the game in question, plus it covers other point-and-click titles like King's Quest and Maniac Mansion as its precursors. The latter was always one of those titles kids in school would pass around in conversation but I never stumbled across it in any form.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9F9ahZQ7oP0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[drave]

maniac mansion is my favorite point and click




Tons of memories with this game.


Also, Shadowgate. I distinctly recall one of my older brothers raging when I figured out shit he couldn't.

[M-A-G]

One thing I can praise about these types of computer games, hell I'll throw in the Carmen Sandiego titles as well, is they were about making you think but you were still enjoying yourself. I know this genre took a major dip in popularity as time went on but I would imagine it'd be terrific fit for the mobile device scene. Or is it all word games and Candy Crush?

[Lock Jaw]

Heck, I remember consulting an atlas as a kid for Carmen Sandiego. Anything that makes a kid look in a book like that has gotta be considered a success. I guess nowadays the kids would just use google or wiki to find the answer almost instantaneously... but I remember just searching through that atlas, really wanting to get that rank promotion....

[Big Vic]

maniac mansion is my favorite point and click

What is the one with the little kid and his flahlight wearing a read hat and a brown backpack. He tries to get into a library but it's locked so he has to go down the basement stairs to try and sneak in. Graphics looked 16 bit-ish.

This is all I remember :( can't find the name.

[M-A-G]

The Adventures of Willy Beamish?

[DAMN iNATOR]

Heck, I remember consulting an atlas as a kid for Carmen Sandiego. Anything that makes a kid look in a book like that has gotta be considered a success. I guess nowadays the kids would just use google or wiki to find the answer almost instantaneously... but I remember just searching through that atlas, really wanting to get that rank promotion....

I only ever got to play Where in the U.S.A. Between some of the rather tricky geographical clues and the somewhat weird to my young mind terms they used to describe certain physical attributes of the V.I.L.E. villain who you were tasked with apprehending in a certain time period made it especially daunting. I remember always thinking that if there was 2 or 3 suspects with similar attributes, did I accidentally choose the wrong one? Waiting when I got to the place where they were and hoping to see the paddy wagon with the right suspect in the back was so nerve-wracking.

[Lock Jaw]

But what if the paddy wagon was only there because of information that YOU supplied? How many innocent people did you send to jail DAMN iNATOR? How many?!

[weather vane]

Dr. Quandry

[M-A-G]

I instinctively thought of the Hugo series of games when reading Vic's question even though it's clearly not what he was talking about. Those games along with The Secret of Monkey Island were discovered by me almost simultaneously. If I'm recalling correctly, one of the kids I knew from taking the bus home after school had a brother in high school. Our grade would be dismissed earlier than the high school students so he would go to the high school library, chill there and wait for his brother. The library had these games installed on the computers there and one day I got invited to check it out. It certainly helped kill the time waiting for the bus in a much better fashion than sitting under a fucking tree. They were nothing like anything I'd played before, requiring a bit more mental sharpness. If these kinds of games were the Food Pyramid, stuff like Doom and the Konami beat-'em-ups were the junk food from the convenience store.

[DAMN iNATOR]

But what if the paddy wagon was only there because of information that YOU supplied? How many innocent people did you send to jail DAMN iNATOR? How many?!

Here’s a blank check. Write it for as much hush money as you need to make this all go away, nice and smooth-like, see? 😎:shifty:

[DAMN iNATOR]

...Oh, shit...did I just type that out loud?!

[Big Vic]

The Adventures of Willy Beamish?

No :(

[Big Vic]

I instinctively thought of the Hugo series of games when reading Vic's question even though it's clearly not what he was talking about. Those games along with The Secret of Monkey Island were discovered by me almost simultaneously. If I'm recalling correctly, one of the kids I knew from taking the bus home after school had a brother in high school. Our grade would be dismissed earlier than the high school students so he would go to the high school library, chill there and wait for his brother. The library had these games installed on the computers there and one day I got invited to check it out. It certainly helped kill the time waiting for the bus in a much better fashion than sitting under a fucking tree. They were nothing like anything I'd played before, requiring a bit more mental sharpness. If these kinds of games were the Food Pyramid, stuff like Doom and the Konami beat-'em-ups were the junk food from the convenience store.

I probably gotta watch a youtube of "top 20 90s point and click adventure games" or something

[M-A-G]

This is the best I could do. Explore at your leisure and I hope you find what you're talking about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_graphic_adventure_games

[Big Vic]

Checked the covers of each game from 1990-1998 nothing sticks out. Is there a reddit for finding lost media?