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Why did this game "fail"?


Nick Virago

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I know LucasArts barely made a cent with this game, so after Monkey Island 4 they stopped making adventure games (this must be the fifth time I mention the damn star wars fever from the late 90's :blast5: )

My question is: why was this game such a commercial failure (there's not one person that played and didn't like it)?

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Adventure games are dead, no-one in America wants to play them anymore. If a game depends on text and thinking instead of fast paced run, jump, and shoot gameplay it just won't sell.

 

Metroid Prime Hunters sold fantastically, while Phoenix Wright is now a rarity in America.

 

Text dependant games are a thing of the past I'm afraid.

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I've written a small blog about the fall of the Monkey Island series over at The Monkeys Are Listening and the reason is very similar to that of Grim Fandango. At the end of the 90s it was obvious that the technology was advancing so far to create more 'interesting' games such as shoot-em-ups. Adventure Games, despite great plot and characters, just didn't stand up to the action of shoot-em-ups. Puzzles paled compared to blasting the hell out of some alien threat. LucasArts, like many gaming companies, decided to jump ship and create these action games but use their main asset, being license to Star Wars and create Star Wars action-games. Of course they had made Star Wars games before even SMI was released, but now the better technology was there they could create a apparent 'better Star Wars' experience.

 

In short, Star Wars sells; it always has, but Adventure Games such as Grim Fandango and Monkey Island fail to meet those sales. Yet, to add a good note, both of those games have far more content and character than any of their Star Wars games; why? Because they're original concepts. Well almost original, yet at least they are not the same old Star Wars rehashed under new titles.

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Actually, one of my friends didn't like Grim Fandango. I got mad at him.

 

Lol, same thing happened to me, one of my friends hates this game (he likes shooting games and all that stuff)

What the hell is that Fenix thing you are talking about? Never heard of it.

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Phoenix Wright is a game for Nintendo DS. You're a defense attorney and you have to solve murder cases and prove that your client is innocent, even though all the evidence suggests otherwise. It's one of the greatest games I've played in my life.

 

Hey, maybe you'd like that. Phoenix's friends even keep calling him Nick. :D

 

I've also got friends who don't like GF, but they don't like any other games either. At first I was disappointed, but then I realised that it would be childish to belittle someone just because they have different tastes.

 

EDIT: Here's some kind of a commercial video, so that you know what it's like,

 

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Oh PW sold well everywhere... except America.

 

That's why an American version is so rare. They stopped printing the American version and I had to pay $70 for it. That's why I think GF failed... in America. It probably sold fantastically everwhere else.

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You should give it a try. It's the reason I bought a DS in the first place. And you're getting more drama than you ever asked for. The characters are outrageous and the jokes brilliant without interrupting the more serious plot lines.

 

Get it at CDON.Com for 399kr, now!

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Yeah, I'm getting Hotel Dusk as well if it's released in Europe. And PW2 is probably what I'm waiting for the most at the time.

 

Since we're already getting a little off topic, do you have Another Code/Trace Memory? It's by the same people who are developing Hotel Dusk.

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