Wednesday, September 26, 2012

"Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers", Nintendo 64, 1999.

I've got to bring this one to the front of the stack as I've just discovered that the key players of ICOM Simulations, authors of the original Shadowgate Mac-Venture, have bought back the rights to their IP and are preparing to re-launch this particular property. (iPad ports of their FMV triumph the Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective conversion are already for sale!)
Counter to some recent game ads profiled, the problem here is not an inadequate supply of screen shots. Indeed, they are just about all we have to go on, along with a baffling array of company names and logos, the game's name and a helpful indicator that its release will not be elapsing two thousand years prior to the birth of Christ. Unless your game is Myst, screen shots alone shouldn't sell it. (And if it is Myst, your customers deserve the game that they get.)
I was always surprised to find that Shadowgate had sequels (vs. their explicit Deja Vu 2), but other than a bit of character name continuity they don't seem to have as much in common as, say, Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. do. Just a fading license trading off the name recognition of its onetime success. All the same I like to see the old names re-emerging from the woodwork (hi there!) and wish them better success with it this time around.

No comments:

Post a Comment