345th played so far
Genre: Action/Adventure
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 1994
Developer: Adeline Software International
Publisher: Electronic Arts
For me, Little Big Adventure has been a game I’ve been curious about, but not too excited with. For Peter, well… Little Big Adventureย is one of my first gaming memories. Cool Spot will always be the first game I ever completed but Little Big Adventure was stuck in my head for years (I was about 5 when I first played this) and I only re-discovered what it was called when I saw the screenshot for this in the book. Obviously I have been trying to get this into our play-stack for a while and today I succeeded.
Our Thoughts
We played through the first two minutes of the game about twenty times. We did not manage to progress. This influences our impression of the game, as we didn’t get to the ‘good’ bits, but playing through the same bit that often, not making any real progress, and being dumped at the start of the game each time without a chance to save after significant steps and while being forced to endure the same lengthy, useless cutsceney bits, we just couldn’t be bothered. It’s not worth our time.
Let’s see what we can say that’s positive… there’s quite a bit of impressive scripting going on, with characters reacting somewhat uniquely (even though they mostly seem to end in being killed by teleporting elephants). The different character poses are interesting, changing gameplay to a point (although often utterly futile in bypassing guards – in particular when the game doesn’t let you switch stances fast enough, from running to fighting).
Maybe it improves when you get further in, but the start of a game should hook you in. It doesn’t need to give you everything, but unless you’re going for hardcore arcade difficulty (and this game really shouldn’t) it should at least be fun and give you the first few wins. Else it’s just not worth it.
Final Thoughts
I remember not being able to play it as a 5 year old and we still found this game ridiculously difficult now. The fact that if you don’t think to change your ‘stance’ when you start means you will hit a brick wall without any notifications.
I talked with a few fellow gamers after our attempt at playing this and they all just gave me a blank look when I talked about it. Despite this game being considered as one of the 1001 games you must play it does not appear to be memorable. Then again this game contained elements, such as an almost open world that is progressively unlocked, that have become staples in later games.ย Please comment if you played this before and actually completed it!