xorphplex

That's some good parent insight to hear - so kids can like Putt-Putt and it holds up, but the world is different now and there's a lot pushing against it. It does make sense. Yeah it better! Also it's on Bandcamp from the composer in uncompressed quality (and with unused alternate versions). It's such a good album.

Tommo owns the games, and I think they'll use their UFO Interactive label for console releases. The games here seem like a decent representative slice of Humongous, though I think any weirdness or exclusions in game selection comes down to Tommo. They have not handled the brand with much grace. Freddi Fish 3 shipped on Switch with broken music (as in silence, apparently). All of their releases have the big, ugly internal dev subtitles turned on by default (which ScummVM allows you to turn on, though were hidden and inaccessible on the disc releases). The characters' poses on this cover are all hacky repurposings of existing art, which is par for the course. These games have not gotten the presentation and treatment they deserve at all over these last few years. ☹️ I'd like to think there was some marketing and presentation needle to thread to keep them relevant and have them land with modern kids, though I don't think the mobile versions have ever taken off. Lately Tommo's marketing copy has shifted and positions them as a way to "relive your childhood" which really feels like circling the drain. (And that is now literally being represented on this cover) ☹️

Blown away by this game so far, for reasons everyone else is saying. They went all in on character with those closeups and the first-person mouseover text and I am LOVING it. The mouseover text is so elegant, a wonderful touch. The scrapbook discrepancies felt to me as specifically retcons to present Guybrush and Elaine's relationship as smoother and sweeter all along (even in light of all the new mushy lenses to view the series through). Don't know where the game will go, but their first interaction was hecka wholesome. I played Curse for the first time recently (no nostalgia) and that game putting them in love after MI2 is wild, the biggest retcon. For Return to embrace the marriage as it's doing, it may as well in turn make a few small tweaks to support that. That's how it came off to me at least. What a needle thread, and yes! This feels like a Humongous game for a wider audience. The Prologue's tone is great and so in line with those games! This feels like it's taking a lot from Humongous so far. Those games dropped the verbs necessarily all the way back then, and were breezy clean adventures for it (with very simple puzzles). Making them for kids but enjoyable by parents meant simple and readable, going down smooth, with high quality and good taste. This is finally taking up that torch and going further with it. There's heritage down to specific presentation too. Clicking on a character and hearing a small tree-less interaction, then clicking again for a different also snappy interaction is straight from those games. Marrying LucasArts adventures with some Humongous flow and readability is working really really well so far.