Games can grip you for many reasons; good stories and characters, interesting gameplay, or a fun setting to name just a few. With their independent title, Machinarium, Amanita Design has combined a point and click adventure game with traditional puzzles and an entertaining story of lost love and robots.

Machinarium uses a very unique visual style of very detailed hand-drawn,  sprites and backgrounds. They have created an interesting world made of robots and mechanical devices that is bursting with personality.

I first saw Machinarium in action at PAX. At a quick glance, I didn’t know what I was looking at. I thought it was some kind of still screen or digital storybook page. I was intrigued when I finally saw the characters in motion. In some adventure games, the characters and backgrounds stand out from each other. They end up looking like they are from two different artists whose styles don’t mesh. This is definitely not the case here. It is obvious that a lot of time was put into the creation of all the game’s assets to make sure everything fit in.

Machinarium has no dialogue. The story is conveyed through character action and occasionally through talk bubbles that contain animated sequences. You play as a small robot who finds himself in a junkyard. He has been taken away from the house where he happily works alongside his girl robot counterpart. There is a gang of three ruffian-bots that have been causing trouble throughout the city, and it’s up to you to stop them and rescue your friend.

The basic gameplay is a point and click adventure. The twist is that you can only interact with objects within your reach. Fortunately, the robot’s mid-section can be stretched out to make him twice as tall, or scrunched down to get to hard to reach places.

In most instances, everything you need to solve the puzzle is either on the same screen or nearby. It’s really just a matter of using your wits to put the pieces together. There are also several traditional puzzles and brain teasers that must be solved to progress. One sequence even has you playing through parodies of some retro games like Space Invaders and Adventure to progress.

There is a built-in hint system in case you get stuck, which has two parts. The first part is a thought bubble at the top of the screen. Once per area, you can click on it to show you what needs to be accomplished to progress, but not how to accomplish it.

If you are still stuck, part two is a sealed book, which requires you to play through a very basic Shoot ‘em up (shmup) mini-game to unlock. If you make it to the end, it shows you step-by-step how to solve the room you are currently in. Take notes, because you have to play the mini-game each time you want to look at it.

Machinarium is a game I can highly recommend. The puzzles are fun and challenging, but have enough logic to keep you from banging your head on the keyboard in frustration. The world and the characters are very charming. The high level of detail in the game’s artwork really adds a lot to the experience. When I think of games that have stories and characters that will stick with me, Machinarium rises high on my list.

Hey WingerDamagees. (Is there a good phrase for the readers of this site yet?) This is MrColinP, taking a quick reprieve from my temporary Wing Damage exile to let you know about a series of LucasArts themed illustrations that I just completed for the great LucasArts and post-LucasArts centered news site MixnMojo.com. It’s been a dang eventful and joyous few months for MixnMojo and the fans of what they cover, what with the new Monkey Islands, the imminent arrival of Brutal Legend, the comparatively quiet release of A Vampyre Story and the just previewed DeathSpank.

MixnMojo is running a series of retrospectives on each of the classic LucasArts adventure games and were nice enough to let me do illustrations for three of them. Three of the best ones, actually. Links below the break.

There are two links for each illustration. One for my blog entry on that illustration, and one to the article it was created for where you can view the illustration itself.

Day of the Tentacle:
My blog entry
MixnMojo article

Full Throttle:
My blog entry
MixnMojo article

Grim Fandango:
My blog entry (including lots of way cool wallpapers!)
MixnMojo article

Cool! Which is your favorite Wind Gamagers?

“Can I have that bucket?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s there.”

“Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay”, the second episode in Telltales new Monkey Island episodic series, picks up immediately where the first game left off. While most Telltale episodic games can be played out of order without leaving the player completely lost, this is not the case with Tales. These episodes are written along the lines of old movie serials.

The first game left off with a cliffhanger that put Guybrush in a tight spot. This one picks things right up from there, starting with a sword fight. Rather than the insult sword fighting of the older games, this one has you solving a puzzle during your duel.

"And I've got a TIP for you. Get the POINT?"

The game controls exactly like episode one. You point and click to interact with objects, but move Guybrush with either the “WASD” controls or by dragging the mouse. You can also run when moving with the mouse by holding down the right click. This feels incredibly awkward, but the increased walk speed is worth it. I am still of the opinion that the old point and click interface works best, especially since you are already using it for a majority of the game.

Once again, the writing is top notch. From start to finish, the game provided plenty of laughs. Now that I have finished the original Monkey Island (and Special Edition), I can see that they are really building off of the existing MI universe in these new episodes.

The voice actors also turned in great performances. Since this one allows Guybrush and Elaine the chance to interact more, you get a much better feel for the characters and their relationship. The secondary characters are off the wall, as you would expect, and the actors do a great job bringing the universe to life.

"Two Unsavory Pirates"

Without giving away any spoilers, I have to say my favorite parts of this episode were the interactions between Guybrush and LeChuck. I’ll leave it at that, because I really don’t want to spoil anything.

They also mix up the locations more in this one, as you go island hoping between several tiny islands to solve many of the puzzles. While it did make the game feel a little bigger moving from island to island, this was counterbalanced by the fact that most of the islands are very tiny; so tiny that the screen barely has to scroll over for you to have walked across the whole thing.

Like the first episode, the majority of the puzzles made enough logical sense, at least within the game universe’s twisted logic, that you can get through this episode in just a few hours. If you do get stuck there is, once again, a built-in tip system to help you out. If you aren’t progressing, Guybrush will randomly say helpful things to clue you in on the next puzzle.

“The Siege of Spinner Cay” is a nice continuation of the story and I am looking forward to the twists and turns they take us through in episode three.

You can get the entire season of “Tales of Monkey Island” from Telltale’s official site.

This review is based on the PC version of Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay provided to us by Telltale.

As I mentioned in my review of “Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal“, I am new to the whole Monkey Island franchise. Not to say I’m new to adventure games, I just somehow missed this series the first time around.

It was great to be able to catch up on a game that I’ve been wanting to play for several years. I also wanted to be able to be able to compare both the original and Special Edition, so I played through both versions. The original on PC and SE on the Xbox 360.

“The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition” takes the classic LucasArts adventure game and gives it a graphical overhaul, as well as all new voice acting. The writing still holds up to this day. It is laugh out loud funny on several occasions, and the new voice cast did a great job bringing these great characters to life.

The point and click interface works flawlessly when you are on the PC and using a mouse. Playing it on the 360 is a little trickier. You use the analog stick to move the cursor across the screen, which is pretty cumbersome. They did add the ability to use the d-pad as a shortcut to the various interactions. This is very useful since it makes it a little more functional.

"Special Edition Graphics"

The new graphics are a mixed bag. The backgounds are beautiful. They look like paintings, and I really enjoyed their style. However, I was not too fond of the redesigned characters. They have a very similar hard angled / carved out of wood look like the new Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoons.

The text is also pretty hard to read sometimes. In the original, all the text appears below the action. In the remake, all the text choices appear in white. This makes them incredibly hard to read in a few scenes.

I also have a little bit of an issue with the animation. With the original graphics, everything moves as you would expect. However, when you apply those same animations with the same number of frames to the new graphics, it makes it look wonky. I know in this type of remake they almost always do a one to one with the animation (see the HD remake of  Street Fighter II: Turbo), but it looks wrong with high res graphics.

"Original Graphics"

One of the coolest features is the ability to switch between the original and new graphics simply by hitting the back button. Sometimes, I ended up doing this to read the text when it was one of those hard to read scenes I mentioned above. It also allows you, if you are so inclined, to play through the game both ways. Pretty convenient considering there are two endings.

All in all, “The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition” is a great adventure game by any standard. I would recommend it to those who loved the original or if you are new to the franchise. It is even a good jumping on point if you are new to the genre.

I just hope that this leads to more Special Editions and re-releases of these great classics.

"Here There Be Monkeys"

Can I first start by saying, seeing the Lucasarts logo at the front of an adventure game again really gave me a warm fuzzy feeling? Because it did.

Now it is time to come clean. While I love Lucasarts’ classic adventure games, pirates, and comedies, I have never actually played a Monkey Island game. This gave me a unique perspective going in to the new “Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal”, the first in a new episodic series from Telltale games.

In a way I’m glad, as the game did not have to live up to some high bar it’s predecessors have set for many gamers. I have played several of the Telltale adventure games already, so there is the second bar, another high one, that I’m sure many will be judging this game by.

You will be happy to note that the game lives up to the hype you may have built up for yourself. In that I mean, it is a clever point and click adventure game that is laugh-out-loud funny.

The basic plot is that LeChuck is at it again, this time trying to use some crazy monkey based voodoo to bind the seven seas to his will. You, once again taking on the roll of Guybrush Threepwood, are attempting to stop LeChuck and save your wife Elaine when things go horribly wrong.

This kicks off the start of what is to be a larger story that spans all five episodes of this new series. After this initial encounter, Guybrush is stranded on the mysterious island of Flatsom. Here all the winds are blowing inward toward the island, making it impossible for ships to leave. His hand has also been cursed, so he’s got that going on too. The story is well presented, the characters are charming, and as mentioned above, it had me laughing hard for most of the game.

The play control is a little different than I was expecting. In most point and click adventure games, you click where you want your character to move and they do it. Here that mechanic only applies if you are clicking on something you want Guybrush to interact with. To walk, you have to use the good old “WASD” or you can hold the left click and drag him around. It is a little strange at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly.

Being an episodic game, it is fairly short. I was able to get through it in just a few hours. The difficulty curve was a little lower than I was expecting. This is either because they wanted to ease people into this new adventure or that after playing many of the other Telltale games, I have started getting into the mindset of how their puzzles work.

There is a built in hint system, like most of their games, where the character will say things to give you clues as to what to do next. You can adjust this higher if you find yourself getting stuck. The folks at Telltale seem to want you to enjoy the game and not get frustrated and quit like what would often happen in old-school adventure games. I think they have struck a pretty good balance with this one.

There isn’t a lot more I can say without spoiling the plot or the puzzles, so I’m going to cut this review a little short. I would definitely recommend this to fans of adventure games, comedies, or pirates. If you are new to the genre, this game will ease you in and make you smile while it’s at it. If you are veteran, there are some references thrown in just for you.

Personally, I can’t wait for the second episode.

This review is based on the PC version of Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal provided to us by Telltale.

"Not Shy About Their Love"

“2 Player Reviews” is a series of articles in which two members of the Wing Damage staff separately review a game, so as to give our readers multiple perspectives on the subject matter.

Player 1 – Jonah “spambot” Gregory

One of the bigger disappointments in gaming over the last several years, for me, has been the lack of new and creative adventure games. They are finally starting to get a small comeback through the efforts of companies like Telltale Games, but for some of us, they never really went anywhere.

The independent gaming scene has seen adventure games flourish. Many fan projects have been started, and many have died, never to be finished. I find it even more exciting when an original IP comes along that can give you not only an entertaining game, but a big dose of nostalgia to boot. Enter Zombie-Cow Studios, home of “Ben There, Dan That“.

“Ben There, Dan That” stars, and was written and created by, Ben Ward and Dan Marshall. As the picture at the top of this article shows, Ben and Dan are not shy about their love of Lucasarts adventure games from yesteryear. After a short intro sequence, you are treated with the characters’ living room, which is plastered with posters of Sam and Max, “Day of the Tentacle” and “Full Throttle”.

The game uses the traditional single button interface, which can be cycled through to make your character walk, look, use, and talk. As is usual, you collect items through the game to use in solving puzzles. Unlike a lot of earlier adventure games, especially independently created ones, the puzzles are relatively straightforward and use at least some logic, even if it is in a humorous, “making fun of old adventure games” sort of way. If you do get stuck, there is a spoiler-free hint guide found on the site.

The humor of the game mostly comes through in the dialog between Ben and Dan. The two banter back and forth about their current predicament, other characters you have encountered, and even the items you have been collecting. This is where the game really shines. The writing is very tight and the banter really works. You get a real sense that these characters have already been through adventures in the past together and that, by this point, nothing really shocks them. I assume that is because it was written by two real life friends, which transferred well to their in-game counterparts. Also, it is legitimately funny. This is not as easy to pull off as some people might think, especially in the context of a video game.

The Plot is a little thin and is really just an excuse to get the two from point A to point B while making the player laugh in-between.  Ben and Dan find themselves aboard an alien spaceship and have to find objects that they can use as keys to open the doors on the ship, all of which lead to various wacky dimensions from a world overrun by zombies (though you barely see any) to one where the entire population has been turned into super-heroes. While the scenarios are fun, they are a little short. Several of them are only one room.

Overall, I had a blast playing through the game and recommend it to fellow adventure game enthusiasts. It stands above many others in the indie adventure game scene.

Player 2 – Colin “MrColinP” Panetta

Before I ever even played “Ben There, Dan That”, I was coming up with ways for this review to leverage the game’s status as being independently produced, against what I predicted to be an underwhelming experience. “How do you review an independent game?” I thought, “Do you hold it to the same standard as a game that had years of development and millions of dollars put into it? Or do you lower your standards and placate to it as if it’s lesser?” The other thing working against “Ben There, Dan That” right out of the gate, for me, is that it boldly sets itself up as following in the tradition of the LucasArts era of adventure games. Big posters of Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and Full Throttle adorn the protagonists’ living room and it borrows Day of the Tentacle’s “jagged spiral” motif in many of it’s backgrounds and even it’s desktop icon. I’m sure the game-makers meant this as a tribute, but it also sets their game up to be compared to those works. As it turns out, both of these concerns were moot.

“Ben There, Dan That” has a lot of really great stuff going for it, placing it above the vast majority of other independently produced adventure games that I’ve played. Mostly, it’s that it has extremely high production values and they pay off in play value. The visuals are very slick. I’ve never seen anything made with Adventure Game Studio look this good. From a technical standpoint, the title sequence really blew me away. Now, I haven’t played an AGS game in years and the program could very well have advanced considerably in that time, but regardless, this game looks good in a way that shows that its creators have a real eye for making things… look good. For example, sometimes the character sprites subtly change color to match the palette of that particular area’s background color scheme. And the attention to detail doesn’t end there. There’s a lot of incidental character animation in the game; characters using objects, background characters moving about, and so on.

Humor is very hard to pull off in video games and I think I’m an especially harsh judge of it, but a lot of the jokes in this game really work. The designers have cast themselves in the lead roles and the humor is largely of the somewhat tired “snarky British dude” variety, but they have enough personality and wit to make it enjoyable. A lot of the jokes are also adventure game based, in a kind of meta way that’s genuinely cleaver, but I imagine it goes over most people’s heads. My favorite of these being when Dan remarks on Ben’s flawless ability to determine which objects he should pick up, and which to merely leave, with a sly remark.

The game’s two biggest weak points are the backgrounds and the story. The backgrounds are very sparse and hastily drawn. Doors are proportionally too small for the characters. Making them larger would have filled up some of the glaringly empty walls above. Elsewhere, three visitable locations are strewn about randomly. Arranging them in a more composed manner would have looked, and played, more fluidly. The story is essentially one extended sequence of “use key on door” and, without any real narrative driving the events, all we have left is the gameplay and humor to entertain us. They’re pretty good, as I said, but not necessarily good enough to completely sustain the entire play time of the game. Also, the sound design is really good, but a little sparse in some places where the silence was noticeable. But these criticisms are of a type usually reserved for games with loftier origins. That you can make these criticisms of this game is a testament of how far the designers made it with so little.

A part of why I enjoyed this game so much is that my bar was set to its low “independent adventure game” setting and yours should be too. But, if you’re looking for a classic adventure-styled, independent game you can get behind, you’re not going to do much better than Ben There, Dan That.

“Ben There, Dan That” is a free adventure game available for PC at Zombie-Cow.com