When I was but a young child, I firmly planted myself in the cushy reclining chair of the lifetime gamer. I spent many an hour perched next to my brother, as he slaughtered his way through Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein, Quake and, of course, Doom. I cheered as countless zombie hookers were vaporized by nailguns, chainguns and the occasional BFG; and while these experiences no doubt account for some sort of early-life psychological trauma that will one day require thousands of dollars of therapy, they were never what truly pulled me into the PC gaming universe.
What pulled me into gaming and where did it go? Click over to find out.
For me, Lucasarts Entertainment ruled the world. I routinely battled and defeated the evil ghost pirate LeChuck of Monkey Island, I wreaked investigative havoc with Sam and Max, I chased an evil genius through a temporal rift in my Chronojohn via Day of the Tentacle, and I tried not to lose my way in the Maniac Mansion. These games were sadly lacking in the disemboweled space marine department, but they made up for it by incorporating some of the most disturbing humor ever mass produced, somewhat comparable to a video version of The Onion, or maybe MAD Magazine back before it bent over for The Man.
Point-and-click adventure games were not designed to be graphically enthralling, or to provide the best character navigation system or any of the other key rating points now assigned to all games. Adventure games didn’t even take themselves seriously, much less come close to adhering to any of the modern strictures of game design. Myst is the key exception to this rule, but this has more to do with the fact that Myst was designed for people who considered Rubik’s cubes, Thomas Kinkaide’s paintings, and The Silmarillion to be pinnacles of excitement. To this day, I cannot fathom why they bothered to make a version of Myst for the DS, because I’m pretty sure that the only vaguely redeeming quality that game had was the fact that the landscape views weren’t horribly rendered, and shoving those graphics into a DS creates something akin to what it would look like if Claude Monet vomited onto a 2 inch screen.
Anyway, I digress. The point is that chasing a maniacal talking tentacle, or insult swordfighting with a gang of pathetic pirates are hardly plot twists you’d find hidden in a game like Assassin’s Creed or Bioshock. As we all know, videogames are certainly not safehouses for people who enjoy puerile humor. Certainly not at all.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this-small.png)
Tweet ThisCONTINUE TO PAGE: 1 2
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
10 responses so far ↓
1 DigIt // Aug 19, 2008 at 11:15 am
Valve= pwnage+best easter eggs+plot EVAR in HL
2 Eoco // Aug 19, 2008 at 11:28 am
Well, last generation we had some wacky games, such as Psychonauts and the re-release of Conker.
3 DWK // Aug 19, 2008 at 11:31 am
That’s a very strong point you make there, Vindis. Great article. If you’re not on staff yet, you’d make a good writer. Very convincing.
4 RobT // Aug 19, 2008 at 11:39 am
Day of the Tentacle was incredible! I still play it on my iPhone on the train!
5 Vohaul79 // Aug 19, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Nothing beats the slap stick comedy of Sierra’s quest games (Space Quest, Kings Quest, Heros Quest), and Lucas Art’s Monkey Island / Full Throttle etc .. I still play them at least once a year to remind myself why the hell I used to love gaming. Guybrush / Lechuck , Roger Wilco, all are insanely missed…
6 tsukasa // Aug 19, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Day of the Tentacle was the funniest adventure game that ever came into existance, Im still promoting it to people that havent played it though things are getting tough lately witht he compatibility issues…
‘New’ gaming has had many more changes other than the ‘lack’ of fun and humour in games. Take of example 2 ‘connected’ games, System Shock2 and Bioshock. I played SS2 years ago and still remember SHODAN, the story and how pleasant that game was. I played Bioshock some months ago, I don’t remember the bad guys name. Heck I dont even remember the story clearly… My point? Difficulty and challenge. SS2 pushed you to play properly, monsters stop being scary when you are more murderous and dangerous than the monsters themselfs. Bid Daddy wasnt at all scary when you realise that he’s so easy to take down…
7 Badboy-offthecouch // Aug 20, 2008 at 2:53 am
You only have to look at the success of Portal and the GTA series to realise that we’ll splash out on good, funny games… so GIVE THEM TO US YOU BASTARDS.
I suppose you need genuine wit (or need to employ someone with genuine wit) to write a good, funny, clever storyline, and that takes way more effort and time than just writing a good story. Look at the Darkness - great story, but the humour was cringe-worthy, especially those frickin’ phone calls.
8 vgplayer36 // Aug 24, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I thought that SBCG4AP was pretty funny, but I do agree that funny games are few and far between, and even when a funny game comes out it’s old humor. Where’s all the satirical games? What happened to Conker and Banjo-Kazooie, Rare?
9 man // Aug 30, 2008 at 1:54 pm
There’s a new Banjo game coming. That’s got to mean something, right?
10 AetherMcLoud // Sep 9, 2008 at 4:40 am
You should try Disgaea 3 on the PS3. Awesome RPG with a lot of tongue-in-cheek and breaking-the-4th-wall humor.
Leave a Comment