How appropriate! You fight like a cow!

Gamers born before 1990 almost universally cut their teeth on the now-moribund adventure genre. Justly criticized for the often obscure logic of their puzzles and the fundamentally uninspiring click-everywhere-try-everything gameplay, adventure games fell out of favor in the face of more visceral first-person shooters and action-adventures. Those who played them, however, fondly remember the clever writing and charming personality of these games, particularly those produced by LucasArts. In recent years, they have seen a slight resurgence of popularity, thanks in part to the efforts of TellTale games, who revived Sam & Max as an episodic game series. Now they have pulled the same trick with the Monkey Island series, and as part of the launch of the new series, the original Secret of Monkey Island has been released in a new special edition, with spiffed-up graphics and an all-new voice track. Yes, I think you should buy it.

In general, I think the older games that essentially walked 2-D sprites over pseudo-3-D fields have aged better than early polygonal 3-D graphics, but the new coat of paint serves The Secret of Monkey Island very well. The designs faithfully render the overall look of the original, while adding a whimsical flair that meshes perfectly with the game's irreverent tone. The voice acting is somewhat less successful, in part because some lines get repeated quite a bit, and in part because the speaking slows the pace down. Hearing the swordfighting insults in full voice, however, is more than adequate compensation.



The primary weakness of the special edition is that it's still the same game, which means nobody is applying any of the lessons learned from the downfall of the adventure genre. The puzzles are still fairly obscure, you still have to click on everything in sight in order to progress, and you still have to figure out how on earth you can use a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle. Fortunately, there is a light hint system available, one that judiciously directs the player towards the right answer without spelling things out. It's perhaps not as satisfying as figuring out all the answers yourself, but it's more fulfilling than a trip to GameFAQs.

Of course, if you don't find any of this appealing, you can revert to the original game with the touch of a button, on the fly. Underneath the new spit and polish, The Secret of Monkey Island hasn't really changed. For those of us who remember that a man's wit must be as sharp as his blade, that's an ideal kind of update. And for those who never learned what to say when a sword master calls you a pain in the backside, The Secret of Monkey Island is about the best possible introduction to a style of play that once dominated computer gaming.

Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is available on Wii and The Secret of Monkey Island SE can be downloaded on XBox Live Arcade. Both games are available on Steam for PC.

Game Review: Plants vs. Zombies

So here's a little computer game that's kept me up way past my bedtime several nights over the past few weeks. Pop Cap's Plants vs. Zombies is a defend-your-castle style game, which I've played before, but I'd never played one quite as addictive as this one. The premise is simple: defend your house from hordes of zombies with a variety of nearly 50 plants.

When I write it like that, the game sounds kind of lame, but it's remarkably well done. The zombies get steadily more ridiculous (and difficult) as the game progresses, with pole vaulters, Michael Jackson impersonators, Zamboni drivers, and punks on pogo sticks all making appearances. Every level or so, you get a new plant to add to the arsenal, and that's where the addiction came in for me. As soon as I got a new plant, I was compelled to try to use it. And often you have to use the new plant or mushroom to get past the next zombie threat. There's the simple peashooters at the beginning, a hypnotizing mushroom that turns zombies against their zombie brethren, and ears of corn that lob pads of butters at zombies, making them slip up.


Yes, it's all very silly, and at least for me, not especially difficult. Out of the 50 levels in the Adventure Mode, I only lost a few and had to try them over again. But that didn't make the game any less enjoyable. There are also lots of mini-games (which I'm still working on), and you can collect coins and jewels to buy lots of other plants and gadgets for more playing.

Plants vs. Zombies was, quite honestly, the best $20 I've spent in a long time. It's not going to change your life or anything, but it will challenge you just enough to keep playing and entertain you enough that you wish it actually lasted longer.

Gooed times

For gamers, the madness has begun. We have entered the late fall release period, when every week brings the release of two or more AAA titles from major studios and publishers. Just looking at this week's release slate makes me so, so happy that I do not review games for a living: I would probably go mad just trying to cover a tenth of this mess. We have the big sequels — this week sees Fallout 3, Fable II and Far Cry 2 are already out, Gears of War 2 and others are coming. We also have some truly unique and original ideas out and on the way, with parkour adventure Mirror's Edge and the cooperative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead. In all of this noise, you might miss a game like the physics puzzler World of Goo, from independent developers 2D Boy. Well, don't get snowed by the big boys — World of Goo will put a smile on your face even as you violently curse the law of gravity for its obstinacy.

The World of Goo is inhabited by numerous little goo balls that can be stuck together to create structures. In each level you have a few goos and a gap you must cross somehow to reach a pipe that forms the level's egress — the goo balls only really move across structures made from other gooballs. Most frequently you must build a bridge, but towers, arches, pendulums, and other more exotic designs are also needed. The key to each level is making optimal use of the structural properties of the goos, as well as their special abilities. The goo balls can produce relatively strong structures, but you rarely have the numbers or the space to build anything more than a rather wobbly one. Figuring out how to turn your limited goo balls into an escape route can be quite a challenge, and success produces some great "Aha!" moments.


On their own, the puzzles would be entertaining enough, and the game doesn't really need anything more. What made the game for me, though, was the art direction. The environments are whimsical, cute, and a little creepy. The music also contributes wonderfully to the atmosphere of each level. Although at its core it this a game about cute little balls of goo that stick together, the levels manage an impressive range of moods. World of Goo has a light little story, mostly carried on by unobtrusive signs and a few cutscenes, about corporate greed, skin-deep culture, and advertising. Understanding that the goo balls are delicious, however, is not essential to enjoying the game.

World of Goo isn't perfect. It can be difficult to select a specific goo that you want, especially if your structures are a bit crowded. Some goo balls that can create either nodes or struts have a tendency to add in as the wrong thing, and when your structures get to wobbling it becomes very easy to make a mistake or drop a goo ball by accident. These problems are essentially minor and probably won't get in the way of your enjoying the game. The only real sin in the game is one of the last levels, which I felt depended too much on luck. It's one thing for me to flub a level, quite another for the level to be flubbed for me by the design.

That one level aside, however, World of Goo has plenty of fun and personality to offer. Although the game is short enough to finish in one or two sittings, getting the obsessive completion distinction on each level, and gaining more extra goo balls for an associated meta-game, will provide several additional hours of play. It's the season for hi-res, hi-polygon titles from big publishers, but you could do much worse than setting those titles aside and getting elbow-deep in some 2D goo.

World of Goo is presently available through WiiWare, and it can be purchased for the PC directly from the developers or via several download services such as Steam. If you don't have a PC, don't despair: Mac and Linux (!!) versions are currently in beta and should be available soon. For this review the game was played to completion on the Wii.

I Love Layton

I have just finished playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a game I cannot recommend highly enough to anyone who has ever enjoyed thinking. The combination of straight-up puzzle solving and adventure game, charmingly presented in 2D, will leave you wanting more and wondering why nobody did this before. Brain game shovelware may well be doomed. The Professor puts that genre to shame and begs the question: "Why didn't anyone do this before?"

The premise of the game is simple enough—well-known puzzle-solver Professor Layton is summoned to a village to solve the riddle of a hidden inheritance. With his assistant Luke in tow, he heads off to the town of St. Mystere (sigh), where it rapidly becomes obvious that the missing "Golden Apple" is the least of the mysteries confronting him. The townspeople have a strange penchant for posing puzzles and riddles (which can get annoying), and soon enough crimes ranging from a murder to a "doze-and-dash" are plaguing St. Mystere, demanding Layton's attention. The story is pretty entertaining, even though you'll probably figure out most of the mystery about the time you finish the easiest of the bonus puzzles.

Resolving most of these mysteries, and sometimes even moving around the town, requires you to solve several riddles. I have seen some complaints about the difficulty, and I cannot entirely give them credit. The puzzles of the game generally don't require any more knowledge than typically possessed by a fifth grader. The difficulty comes from a requirement for creativity and mental discipline. A child playing this game may need assistance from adults in spots, but then again, an adult playing this game may need a childlike outlook to achieve some of the necessary lateral thinking. In short, if you have kids, play this game with them. You will all have a great time. And don't worry; if you don't have a 10 year old to help you, a limited number of hints are available.

The tale of Professor Layton is conveyed through 2D animations and drawn backgrounds. The character design is excellent, with endearingly wacky villagers that are full of personality. The game features a substantial amount of voice acting, which actually works out quite well, though I suspect it cut down on the amount of music available. The soundtrack is passable, and works to help set the tone, though having some more variety would have been nice.

The game isn't perfect. Although the touch control is essentially seamless, the movement system seems unnecessarily elaborate. The village mostly runs out of puzzles before the game runs out of story. As I mentioned the mystery itself is a little easy to get (though it requires a little leap), and also more or less solves itself. A little more involvement from the player in solving the larger riddles would have been great. The game is also a little short—the 15 bonus puzzles and additional downloadable content should provide your fix until Level 5 delivers the sequel that the bonuses page promises is coming. There are already 3 Professor Layton games out in Japan so this will mostly be a matter of localization. A longer story might also have helped get the player a little more emotionally involved; as it is, the story ends just as you're really starting to fall in love with the characters.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a pleasant little game with a story and characters just wacky enough to make the numerous brain-teasers seem a natural part of the world. The puzzles themselves aren't crushingly difficult, though a few can get a little frustrating. The story and presentation makes it much more engaging than the standard brain-game shovelware. Cute enough to engage a child, smart enough to stump an adult, Professor Layton is charming fun anyone who loves thinking can enjoy.

Phantom Hourglass

Last night, as Hillary accepted the zero delegates she won from Florida, I finished the latest entry in the Legend of Zelda series, Phantom Hourglass. I found it to be a fun, lightweight romp.

Phantom Hourglass is a sequel to the Gamecube game Wind Waker. It inherits cel-shaded rendering, a general character aesthetic, and an oceanic setting from its predecessor, while the terraced look of the islands (once you are on them) is more closely related to Zelda games from the SNES days (see left). Motion and combat are touch-driven, as are all of the tools—boomerang and bombchu routes are drawn on the screen. So too is your steamship's route through the seas (below, right). You can annotate the map (shown in these shots on the upper screen), circling important points or noting safe routes through treacherous areas. The controls generally work well and make most of the tools and weapons very intuitive, with a few hiccups.

Those minor issues aside, the gameplay is not very challenging, especially if you quickly catch on to how the various tools can be used. The eponymous hourglass serves as a time limit on one of the dungeons, in which a modest kind of stealth is required. This, not a serious challenge, is the most difficult part of the game except for one of the boss battles.

The gameplay fits the classic Zelda mold with the same additions as Wind Waker: you travel around the sea, visiting various islands and breaking into their dungeons. The dungeons themselves are pathfinding environmental puzzles—each dungeon contains a tool that is needed to traverse it and a bafmodad you are supposed to retrieve. Though the islands seem a little closer together than they were in Wind Waker you still spend a lot of time in transit, and the occasional appearances by enemies and pursuers are more annoying than entertaining. On the other hand, the addition of a minigame has much improved the dullest task in Wind Waker, i.e. the retrieval of sunken treasure.

Mini-games and sidequests are abundant, as is typical for these games. Seeking out all the various power-ups and perfecting your scores in these accessory games can add plenty of time to the game. However, your actual rewards are somewhat paltry, and mostly come in the form of parts used to customize your ship, which only really affects the aesthetics.

The role of guide and assistant is once more played by a fairy. Fortunately Ciela is much more helpful (and much less annoying) than Navi. She has a story, and it's somewhat interesting, but in general the story of Phantom Hourglass is very lightweight and silly. This and the easy gameplay make Phantom Hourglass seem like a slight little breeze of a game. It's easy to pick up and easy to forget once you put it down. The adventure sandwiched in between is fun, and retains much of the charm of its predecessor. Despite a few interesting variations on the way some items are used, however, it just doesn't leave much of an impression.

This article has been resized to better fit this blog. For full nerd force, read the original here.