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The Adventures of Willy Beamish -
Classic Point & Click Adventure
Graphic
adventure games are pretty much extinct nowadays. When I say "graphic
adventure," I mean the traditional point-and-click games where you are
playing a character who needs to accomplish a goal and to do that, must
collect items to complete certain puzzles you run into. Examples of
this type of game would be the King's
Quest series or the infamous Leisure
Suit Larry games, which rank
among my  all-time
favorites. Some of the games are
straightforward quests, and
others have comedy and humor inserted in them to attract players.
Leisure Suit Larry, Sam
and Max, and Monkey
Island are examples of this. We
have another adventure game with off-the-wall humor and some
raunchiness to show you this week, an entry from Sierra called The
Adventures of Willy Beamish.
Scenic
Frumpton |
Basically,
the game is a scaled-down version of the Leisure
Suit Larry games. You play
Willie Beamish, a kid in the town of Frumpton, a place like The
Simpsons' Springfield and Fatal
Fury's Southtown —
"Anytown, USA." Willie is just like any other kid. He has friends and
his pet frog "Horny," plays videogames (namely his "Nintari" system),
and someday dreams of entering the Nintari World Championships.
Unfortunately, his dreams of getting there are abruptly cancelled when
his father announces at dinner that he's been fired from his job.
Eventually Mr. Beamish finds a new job with the local soda company
known as Tootsweet, but he is just being used by the company in a plot
to take over the town. Our hero, Willie, eventually discovers this and
it is up to him to set things right again.
Willy's
room - Notice the Star
Trek ship hanging from the
ceiling and the Nintari console in the lower right corner |
The game
is set over the course of four days. Each day presents a new challenge
with different obstacles to overcome and puzzles to get through. As
Willie goes through the game, he'll find different items which he can
store in his backpack for later use. (Personally I find it cool how
Willie's backpack can have so many items inside it. It must be one of
those magical backpacks that sends the item into another dimension so
that it takes up no space in the pack whatsoever. I'll have to ask
Willy where I can get one of those bags.) Anyway, it's up to you to
figure out what items to use, how to use them, and how to overcome the
puzzles you run into.
Inside
Willy's desk - the sandwich is
forever stuck to the bottom |
For
example, at the beginning of the game, you're in detention. If you
check your desk, you'll find a wooden board and two crayons. If you can
make it past a rather tired teacher in detention hall, that board and
one of those crayons might be able to whip up something to get you past
the teacher outside in the hallway. Be sure to be careful of what you
say and do as well. Giving a smart-ass remark or disobeying your
parents may get you cursed out, beaten up, or even sent to boot camp! As
with most
adventure games, save early and save often.
The
graphics are among the most colorful I've ever seen and the animation
sequences are awesome. Of course, this game does have its share of
problems. First and foremost, it is very frustrating at times when you
can't figure out a puzzle or can't do it in a certain amount of time.
On day four, for example, you come across the game's hardest puzzle.
You must rescue the frogs from a cook who plans on serving them up for
dinner.
The nurse
has huge...
uh, amounts of medical talent |
Also,
like most adventure games, once you beat it, there's not much to bring
you back except for the funny scenes. As a warning to younger players,
there is some raunchiness in the game such as the school nurse (what a
babe), Willie's mother who seems to love wearing skintight clothes, and
a bath scene with Willie's older sister (doesn't she kind of look like
Debbie from "The Wild Thornberries"?) that would push this game up to a
PG-13.
Still,
despite its high frustration factor, this is a very good entry in the
Sierra adventure games list. It's unfortunate that most adventure games
are now extinct. So check out this piece of videogame history and see
the adventure games that we once enjoyed before being bombarded with
tons of FPS's and their clones. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it?
Suitable
for Windows
95/98/ME/2000/XP
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Item
is
Supplied in SEALED CD SLEEVE, and is a re-release. Item is Mint
Condition - Artwork is for illustration only and may differ. All
Trademarks Acknowledged.
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