The right game for the right time part 4: Adventure Games

Remember our journey to find the right game for the right time? Let’s resume our quest with part 4. This time we will talk about Adventure games, a game category that is very varied, and can easily be taken for RPG games. In adventure games you also take on the role of the hero, but instead of battling and leveling up, the focus here is more on exploration and solving puzzles. It’s a story that you are playing out, and you have a wide world to explore. In most games you are not bound to one exploring areas in a set way, but often you’re encouraged to follow the storyline by acquiring items you’ll need for the next area.

I’ll start off by one of the most loved and well known adventure series, the Legend of Zelda. Reading up on the internet it’s not entirely clear if all Zelda games are indeed adventure games. Some might classify as RPG, or action games. But to me, they will always be excellent adventures, knowing how to draw you into the story and giving you a sense of a vast world to explore. I’ve played them on the DS, The Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, I very much enjoyed the Windwaker in the GameCube and A Link between Worlds on the 3DS. I’m not going to open a discussion here as to which game is best of all the Zelda games. I haven’t nearly played them all, plus I know Zelda discussions can be heated ones!

Another game series I want to mention here are the Lego games, most modeled after celebrated movies. I’ve played several, like Indiana Jones and The Hobbit. And if you are a fan of the series, you’ll be enchanted by the humor in the games and seeing your favorite movie scenes played out. Most use the original actor voices and music, making it an even better experience. But to me, the best Lego games aren’t about a movie: Lego City. Following agent Chase on his job in San Francisco I was very much enjoying the look of the town that I had seen a year prior in real life, I loved the puns, like the reference to the Starsky and Hutch series. There are two games, one on the 3DS (Lego City Undercover) and the even more magnificent game on the WiiU.

There are so many great adventure games to be found, like Little Kings Story on the Wii, Tearaway in the Vita, and the last game I want to mention specifically: Pikmin 3, a game on the WiiU. I’ve written about it in the past, what adorable little creatures! Everything that is so normal to us is huge to them, and getting about really takes some careful thinking, not to mention that even an innocent looking lady bug is their deadly enemy, The fact that days are short, and that you have to make sure all your little buddies are aboard their pod before evening falls makes it an even more challenging game.

Within the category adventure games, there’s a special sub-category: Visual Novels. Most are adventures too, but with lots more text. You could pick one of those if you can’t decide to game or read a book. There are some excellent examples of visual novels, like 80 Days and Sorcery! ( both on iOS). Another good one on the DS is Hotel Dusk, and I’ve been told that 9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors is another game that is well worth your time. Be ready for lots of text and sometimes slow going, but it’s the depth of the characters that keep you coming back to the game.