[Humongous Classic Collection]

On 11/30/2022 at 6:10 AM, Aro-tron said:

To be honest, the market for kids games is so different to what it was in the 1990s. The pace of the Humongous games is so much slower than almost any other game my kids have played on something with a screen. Modern games have an abundance of ways get instant feedback by clicking or tapping or swiping, and constant incentives to keep playing and progressing in some way or another. Compared to this, Humongous games are much slower. I would say that they are less engrossing than watching cartoons, since there are plenty of times without a lot of action, or where you might just be sitting there thinking about how to solve a puzzle. The level of engagement is more like reading a picture book, which I personally think is good for kids, but that's not where the market is.

 

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.

 

4 hours ago, Staple Remover said:

I have to know if the soundtrack contain the 2nd greatest video game song of all time known as “Welcome to the Zoo”?

 

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.

[Humongous Classic Collection]

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) ☹️

[Return to Monkey Island VERY EARLY GAME Spoiler Discussion (Up through early Part One)]

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.

 

4 hours ago, Aro-tron said:

The prologue did the impossible in threading the needle and turning the cliffhanger from Revenge into a new-user friendly tutorial section. I've just played Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo with my little kids, and that whole section had a Humongous vibe to it - albeit with plenty of gross touches that suggest a disturbing rot underneath the happy-go-lucky veneer.

 

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.