MEMORIES OF GAMING PAST: REVISITING GOBLIINS 2

It was Christmas, sometime between 1993 and 1995. I don’t remember the specifics, as it was a while ago and my memory has always been spotty. Nevertheless, we were spending the holidays back in Washington state, USA where I’m originally from (but had moved over to Australia a few years earlier). We took a few days stop off in Hawaii, and while traipsing around one of the islands, I found a games store and managed to persuade my parents into buying me an early Christmas present. That game was Gobliins 2. Visiting my childhood friend Josh, we proceeded to play the game for the remainder of my stay, slowly working our way through its seemingly incomprehensible puzzles and amusing cartoonish presentation. Revisiting the game all these years later two things come to mind. The first is that the visuals, audio, sense of exploration, and humourous rewards still hold up to this day. The other is that the puzzles are enough to make you want to tear your hair right out of your scalp… so let’s explore this root of premature baldness. Gone is the health bar that plagued the first game in the series. Making a mistake would deplete this bar and have you restarting the level when you ran out. This became a drawing point of Gobliins 2, to my young adventure game loving self. I grew up playing Sierra adventures (at this point I think it was another couple of years before I discovered the wonders of Loom and The Secret of Monkey Island) and anyone who has played Sierra adventure games knows all about dying and game breaking scenarios. One wrong turn could spell doom for your character, and missing a crucial item or not doing things in the correct order could create an un-winnable scenario, where the only option was to restart; Gobliins 2 had neither of these. Nothing would cause your characters to die, and nothing you did would impede your progress. This was a breath of fresh air, but perhaps that was because this game was only published by Sierra, with Coktel Vision being the developer. I would say that this approach to freedom of experimentation is the cause of the style of puzzles found within the game. The main puzzle solving mechanic is using the two goblins at your command (named Fingus and Winkle) in tandem to either acquire items or access new areas of the current screen. Fingus is a more polite, well-mannered goblin, while Winkle is a chaotic troublemaker, and solutions often make use of their personalities. An example of this is on the first screen: a bottle is being guarded by two old men who will attack any goblin that tries to take it. There is an oaf sleeping next to a sausage. Having Winkle try to steal it will wake the oaf and result in a good pummeling. This causes the old men nearby to cackle uproariously, and while their laughing distracts them, Fingus is free to grab the bottle. Yes, slapstick and hurting your main characters isn’t just amusing, a lot of the time it’s a good way to solve puzzles. The timing and puzzles become more complex as the game goes on however, and there’s one puzzle in particular that was the catalyst to stop playing and start writing, due to the continued frustration mounting and at this point I experienced enough of the game to jog my memory and enjoy myself. It’s the meatball puzzle in the kitchen. It’s not a hard puzzle per-say (it does have iffy elements of timing though), but what makes it insufferable is that upon failure you need to reset everything, wasting a lot of effort for those of us who weren’t smart enough to save before executing it in the first place. To give you an idea of the steps needed,Ive found a video of this section of the game on YouTube. If you don’t mind spoiling the puzzles, give it a watch. Not only does this guy know what he’s doing, but aside from showing off the sequence in question, this provides a great example of not only the gameplay, but the odd world and puzzles presented, which is part of its overall charm. Also from what I hear, the timing and setups only get more convoluted the further into the game you go. For those of you wishing to revisit this game, or those that wish to try it for the first time, the Gobliins pack is available at GoG for a very reasonable price. It includes the first three games in the series and you get the option of playing either the floppy or CD versions. It’s this choice I wish to end with. I originally played all three games on floppy disc, completely unaware of any CD versions. Upon purchasing this pack I decided to give these previously unknown versions a try. Perhaps it is nostalgic bias, but I much prefer the floppy versions. They give the goblins this amusing fake language that I believe helps shape their personality… while the CD versions have voice acting. Not the highest quality to be sure, but I don’t think that’s the issue. Giving them voices instead of the fake language takes something away. Again, this is probably nostalgia talking but I find myself reciting the nonsense words of the wizard in the intro or Fingus’ high pitched speech at times, and this has helped strengthen my attachment to the game over the years. I’d be interested to know if there are fans out there who prefer the CD version. Would it be because you played that one originally and the voice acting is stronger in your memory than what might be considered annoying gibberish on the floppy version? For those of you with no frame of reference, I’ve run back to YouTube to show you the difference. The first video is the floppy version of the intro, and the second is the CD version with speech. Gobliins 2 is a strong entry in this adventure franchise, but the true champion of the trilogy in my humble opinion is Goblins 3; which is what I’ll be covering next time I write one of these. Until then, enjoy your games new and old, and never be afraid to revisit one of your favourites from years gone passed, even if it might not hold up as well as you thought it did. April 23rd, 2012 http://retro.indiegamemag.com/memories-of-gaming-past-revisiting-gobliins-2/

Category: Gaming News