[misadventurous]

This seems to be one of those games that is just widely considered to be Good and isn't otherwise talked about much. So here, i'll say some things about it.



Little Big Adventure was created by a French developer called Adeline Software. Members of the same team were also responsible for the original Alone in the Dark, and subsequently made a few other games which i have not played and cannot comment on whatsoever.



i guess the game can best be broadly compared to Zelda, in that it's got action and talking to people and collecting items to open new areas, and your character's progression of strength is not numerical but bound to game objects you collect. It doesn't really play out at all like Zelda in practice, but that's the first analogy that comes to mind. The world you must trek back and forth across is big, and boldly colored; the characters are like little child's toys, cartoony exaggerated animals & shapes. The story is a simple one: you are a chosen descendant of an ancient magical bloodline, bound to protect the planet, and you have to defeat the evil tyrant who's threatening to destroy the world. Oh, and rescue your kidnapped girlfriend! Videogame Storytelling 101. Except...



Twinsun is is, i think, a unique setting in videogames: a cartoon fantasy world where the struggle between good and evil is expressed with very modern, real-world imagery. The goofy, storybook looks of its natives jar with unmistakable scenes of oppression & despotic rule. Armed soldiers guard barbed-wire covered ferry checkpoints; robotic clones patrol the streets, looking for people to shoot at or chuck into jail. Twinsen, the hero, is a fugitive from justice, an enemy of the government. In every town, on every island, he is at risk of being imprisoned, or even killed. should he be captured, it's The Man himself who shows up to slap our hero across the face, in a clever, cartoon exaggeration of government interrogation.



Twinsen himself is not a warrior, he's a squishy wizard. Should he attempt to take on a clone hand-to-hand, he will usually be beaten to a paste in seconds. Twinsen is an ordinary man, who just happens to have a magic ball & tunic his grandaddy gave him. When you throw the ball at a clone -- which you will do many, many, many times in Little Big Adventure -- it makes a silly WIBBLE-WOBBLE-WOOBLE sound. It is armed with this silly wibbly-wobbly ball that Twinsen has to tear down government oppression and spearhead revolution.



In addition to being the story of his struggle to liberate Twinsun, Little Big Adventure is the story of Twinsen's growth from a wimp into a hero.The first half of the game is spent assembling the treasures of Twinsen's ancestors, and slowly increasing his power; the second half is spent on the attack. In the beginning his magic ball can barely hit the broad side of a barn, and he's just a lowly asylum escapee whom many NPCs will report to the guards on sight. By the end, he will have led a successful military rescue mission, destroyed most of Funfrock's major operations single-handedly, and ultimately will lead the people to blow up the villain's base. He will also possess a sword that can destroy tanks.



The game's trademark "system" is a unique one: pressing CTRL opens a little pop-up menu that freezes the game, where Twinsen can switch between four different "behaviors" that affect what he does when the player presses SPACE. i think it's a charming pre-"context sensitivity" attempt to vary your means of interacting with the world with as few keys as possible. Your mileage may vary. He also moves via Resident Evil-style camera-relative tank controls, and should the player put him in "athletic" mode & direct him to run into a wall, he will -- in the original, unaltered game -- reel back & take damage. You know, like you would if you fucking ran into a fucking wall! This adorable quirk can be removed from the game, should it annoy you. Or you can just slow down and walk more, like the game wants you to do.



The controls are clunky, but (i believe) deliberately so: it reinforces that Twinsen isn't a fighter with swift reflexes, but a slightly awkward dude. That said, between him, a few immensely frustrating sections, a rather quirky save system that makes those sections even rougher, and a good amount of backtracking, LBA can be a prickly game to like. The investment is worthwhile. This is a game with soul. It has a unique setting & lead character and it is committed to exploring both through the game design. There is no other game that is quite like Little Big Adventure, not even its sequel.



In conclusion, i'm not great at concluding things.

[misadventurous]

yeah, sorry, the image quality isn't great. it's actually a pretty nice looking old game in action. the sequel is prettier (at least indoors) but that's a given.

i will have a post on the sequel at some point, because it is one of my favorite games and a cornerstone of my childhood. and just really really good.

[misadventurous]

hmm
well, they both have friendly, seemingly childish worlds with dark, not-childish themes. and they're both about acquiring the power of the planet by going to sacred locations. and they're both quirky, idiosyncratic cult gems. i dunno. they aren't otherwise much alike.

yes brooks i agree the music is wonderful, i love hearing snippets of the main theme throughout the game and not getting the whole thing until the very end. (it also makes the fact that you can hear it about two seconds into the second game more meaningful.) the pacing is p. great but there is an awful lot of backtracking... if you don't know exactly what you need the first time, you might need to go back across the hamalayi a good three or four times.

i probably left out a lot of good observations. i heartily encourage anyone who's played this game to share any of their own.