King's Quest 7: The Princeless Bride
Enjoyable cartoon-style adventure
One of the last games in the long-running adventure series, The Princeless Bride takes its inspiration from Disney's animated movies and provides a visually impressive, but ultimately shallow and un-King's Quest-like experience. The plot is the usual innocently enjoyable nonsense that eschews violence in favour of a story highly suited to family audiences who have grown up on The Little Mermaid or The Lion King, and sees players attempting to save the land from the machinations of an evil sorceress. Uniquely for the series, the player switches between two characters and is also divided into chapters, which does interrupt the story's flow somewhat. One feature of particular annoyance to veterans of the series is the simplification of the interface, which now requires players to simply click on the environment in order to interact and solve puzzles. Puzzles wise, there are plenty of challenging ones on display here and despite the game's family-oriented visual style, it isn't as easy as this might suggest. The Princeless Bride is a strange game, one that seems out of sorts with its series, thanks to the overly cute graphics and simple interface, but which is difficult to recommend if you've never played any of the previous games, due to the history of the characters. The game certainly isn't ground-breaking in terms of graphic adventures, not doing anything new with the genre, and often feeling like a movie more than a game. If you can ignore the betrayal of the King's Quest lineage in the graphics and interface, there is some enjoyment to be had here though, with a fun quest that offers plenty of twists and turns. Lucasarts' Monkey Island games might be better for newcomers to the genre though.
A good aventure game for all
This version from the King's quest series is unlike the other versions where you need to play the other ones as well to get a grip on it. In this version, they have brought quite a few changes which have made the game equally good for the new comers and for those who have played this series. In replacement to the eye, hand and talk icon, a single cursor has been introduced which is in the shape of a wand. The cursor will glow when you have any interaction with someone. The first look that you will get might make you feel like the game has become simple but it is surely not the case. The graphics are though cartoonish but are very colorful. The cartoonish graphics do not make the gameplay easy or for children as it involves good amount of adventure that is suited to both youngsters and the grown up ones. The two characters in the game are the princess and the queen. You can play this game with your parents and will really bond you with them. You need to use your thinking throughout the game as it involves logic or you can say some fairytale logic. King's Quest 5 has somewhat the same graphics but this onea is a bit different.
Not Kids' Stuff
After playing through King's Quest V and VI, King's Quest VII is often overlooked as being "less" somehow. Instead of the hand, eye, and talk icons from previous games, everything is replaces with a single wand cursor that glows when you can interact with something. My first impression of having all the options stripped away made me think the game was too simple. My first impression of the cartoon animation style made me think the game was aimed at a younger audience. I was wrong on both counts. Just because I can't "look"Â at everything doesn't mean the game became any easier. Just because the animation was childish, doesn't mean the game was for children. The story follows two women of Daventry, Queen Valenice and Princess Rosella, who are whisked away on a magical journey. While the Princess might be just a tad whiny and immature, the queen is a better choice for the older players to relate to. This game would actually be a good activity for parents to bond with their children and to play together. There are no incredibly quick reaction times needed, everything needs to be thought through, logically. (Or at least apply fairy tale logic) This game is recommended for new players and King's Quest veterans alike. Notice that I recommend it for KQ veterans. If you don't have as much invested in the Daventry family, you won't get as much out of the game than if you played several of the previous games. Do yourself a favor and pick up the entire collection.
