Blog Post: Point and Click's Rise and Fall: Video Game Rewind Subscribe to this RSS feed

Rayman Tsang pines about the lost art of the point and click adventure. Can it be revived?

There's these guys, and... no one else, pretty much.

There's these guys, and... no one else, pretty much.

In the late 1980's and early 1990's, one of the most prevalent gaming genres was point and click adventure games like. Loom, Deja vu, Space Quest and the Monkey Island series. These types of games where the funniest and most intriguing games I've had the privilege to play and I say "had" because the genre is all but extinct. So what happened?

By the mid 90's, the transition to 2D to 3D games also brought about the switch from adventure to more action driven games. Sierra phased out their popular Space Quest series. LucasArts continued to produce their adventure games with Full Throttle, The Curse of Monkey Island, Grim Fandano and produced one of the last great titles in Escape of Monkey Island. By then LucasArts started to focus on Star Wars as the prequel trilogy resparked fan interest.

By 2000, point and click adventures games were dead. The new breed of games and gamers focused on action and shooters. Nobody wanted to solve puzzles anymore. It was a shame, as these adventure games featured witty, methodical puzzle solving, and great story telling. There has been a small resurgence of these games with the return of Sam and Max on the PC and new interactive touch screen with the DS has also done wonders, with games like Hotel Dusk and Phoenix Wright. Hopefully Wii developers will follow suit and make an even more interactive point and click adventure.

Whether it's Roger Wilco and his outrageous antics or Guybrush Threepwood's witty rhetoric remarks, these games have a place in my heart. I know there is a minority of gamers who would like to see a comeback of these franchises or the development of new titles within genre. I would like to see at least one more wacky adventure from Roger Wilco, Guybrush Threepwood, or Manny Calavera but it looks grim as most developers have move on.


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