It’s been 30 years since Little Big Adventure released on the PC. Now it is back in its self-proclaimed remake, Little Big Adventure- Twinsen’s Quest. Is it worth checking out? Or should it have remained a beloved classic of the past?
The Quest To Find Answers
Little Big Adventure truly is a relic of the past. Released way back in 1994 to a positive reception and decent sales for its time, the adventure game blended 3D environments with its isometric point of view. Now, after all these years, it has returned in the form of a remake. In the era of remakes and remasters, this new game unfortunately represents many of the negatives which become apparent in trying to recapture the magic of a beloved game. The original story of Little Big Adventure centres around Twinsen, a Quetch (similar to humans but they all possess ponytails) who lives on the planet Twinsun. In the original game, Twinsen has visions of the evil Dr FunFrock causing the end of the world and seeks to protect the planet by warning citizens, which results in his detention in an asylum. It’s from here the original balances a serious tone with light-hearted humour as Twinsen ventures across the planet to defeat FunFrock and save the planet. It’s an enjoyable tale that knows when to be silly and when to be serious. Whilst the remake has major elements of the plot incorporated, it truly makes some really head-scratching decisions in revising the classic tale.
The story originally had Twinsen’s love interest Zoe captured by FunFrock’s army but in this version it is his little sister Luna whp is captured, with Zoe having fled the city years before, bizarrely. Twinsen’s reason for being imprisoned also changes and without giving spoilers, it is a baffling decision that changes the whole mood and tone of the game. I think this is where the core of my issues with the story are; the original had heart and dark moments so finely balanced with the themes of freedom and resistance but in this version it is so light-hearted that I could barely take the threat of planetary destruction seriously. Twinsen seems to take everything that comes his way half-heartedly and I wish the team at 2.21 had opted to keep the tone of the original. I understand these changes are to modernise damsel in distress tropes and avoid old stereotypes, but the way it has been done makes the game feel completely devoid of heart and soul. Add in the truly terrible cutscenes that take place sporadically throughout the game and poor voice acting, and the quality of the voiceovers truly take away what made the first game special to many people. I can respect the developers’ attempts to make the story feel fresh, but they have failed with this version- and I haven’t even mentioned the gameplay yet!
Clunky Clunky Clunkiness
The original version of Little Big Adventure had innovation and ingenuity for its time. Twinsen had a mood system which the player could alter to change gameplay styles. Normal mode had Twinsen act in a standard way and interact with characters. Athletic would make him run and jump better for traversal purposes whilst aggressive and stealth added layers of combat for the player. Not in this game. Gone is the entire mood system, replaced by one set of controls that take away so much from the original that it’s baffling the developers decided to do this. The system is now just a boring clunky mess. The controls are so frustrating with their terrible traversal system; you will almost certainly spend far too much time failing to jump and move on to the next objective. The combat system is equally as bad as you attempt to punch and kick enemies. It’s so bad the enemies don’t even move and I was still experiencing difficulties landing blows on them. Coupled with the terrible lock-on system for the magic ball ability, you have the recipe for terrible game play. The controls were originally tank controls but the replacement system bizarrely is worse.
Along with the awful combat and platforming, the remake also suffers from baffling misses in the quality of life department. I cannot tell you how many times I stumbled across the next objective just by talking to a random character. There is no true objective or mission marker, which makes the game feel completely lifeless and devoid of purpose. Finding a specific piece of dialogue from a specific character involves backtracking across multiple locations to unlock the next part of the story. This is just ridiculous and severely stunted my engagement and enjoyment. Along with the terrible gameplay is a myriad of bugs: characters not engaging in conversation, Twinsen regurgitating lines from the beginning of the game over and over and over and multiple crashes of the game. For a cult classic like this to achieve success, it needed to be a polished and improved product and sadly, this is absolutely none of that. A terrible effort in gameplay and mission design.
The Lack Of That 90’s Charm
I think a common theme of this remake is its lack of charm which the original game managed to capture and this is once again evident in its visual presentation. When loading up the classic game, one of the first things to garner your attention were the graphics with the 2D background design, coupled with the 3D character models. It was impressive for the time but now with the remake, the game feels lifeless in comparison. The new visuals are 3D backgrounds that have replaced the 2D isometric pixels. This makes the game look blocky, low resolution and just downright cheap. Character models and animations also look particularly bad and as previously mentioned, enemy animations are laughable at times and in some instances, no animations actually occur. The whole colour scheme to me feels slightly oversaturated as well, resulting in some ugly images as you traverse across the different biomes that are on display. A disappointing effort in visual design and presentation.
Fortunately, the sound design and score produce some positive results. The remake attempts to make the game more light-hearted and this is reflected in sound design. Wandering around, you will hear lots of boings and cartoonish squeaks and squeals that help to keep the tone at the level the developers are aiming for. Throwing Twinsen’s magic ball sounds great when you manage to strike an enemy with it, whilst hearing an enemy soldier fire off a rife makes you feel like the stakes are high every time a bullet exits the chamber. Dodging and rolling around the map also has this cartoonish sound to it, thus making it amusing for you to traverse the areas this way. Along with the charismatic sound design is a returning soundtrack from original composer Phillip Vachey, which once again is superb. The score has this charming upbeat tone to it that reminds me in some ways of a classic fantasy tale, as the heroes embark on saving the town or village. The score remains one of the best parts of the game and with new additions added to the already strong soundtrack, this is one area the developers have absolutely nailed.
Verdict
Little Big Adventure- Twinsen’s Quest is a profoundly disappointing evolution of the cult classic. Bizarre story tone changes, god awful combat and platforming and poor visuals seal this version as a cheap imitator. Whilst the strong musical score remains, and sound design across the board is solid, it’s not enough to change my opinion that this was just made for a quick buck. This one should have stayed in the 90’s.
