[Oscar]

Anyone a fan of this series?

Gobliiins 4 came out a few years ago and despite an AG review it seemed to go unnoticed. I recently played it and found it to be tremendous fun. I haven't played the originals for a long time - I played them when I was young and found them too hard, so I must go back to them and try again. Some of the solutions can be frustrating and obtuse, but given that there are limited actions you can do, I prefer it that way.

Once of the things I love about it is it's not afraid to declare what it is, and what essentially all adventure games are. It shouts out loudly "THIS IS A PUZZLE - SOLVE IT!" and there's no covering that up with a flimsy story, although there is a story to the game. In some ways it is 'only' a puzzle game, but I think that underestimates the series. I don't have a strong incentive to solve a random slider puzzle, but for some reason the puzzles in Gobliiins demand to be solved, in some strange way.

It's also unique in having several characters working together at the same time to solve a puzzle, predating Lost Vikings (which was obviously inspired heavily by Gobliiins) by a year.

[Schneckchen ^.^]

Lol yeah I like those games... The 4th one was good and after I beat it I went to GoG.com and bought the originals again... no way to get those old floppy disks working these days

Those games definitely have a unique style to them lol. I think my favorite is the first one... but that may just be the nostalgia factor.

[Phaid]

One of my favourite game series ever. Gobliiins 4 was OK, it suffered a bit due to its rough visual style, something more cartoony would have fit the game better.

Originally Posted by Schneckchen ^.^

Lol yeah I like those games... The 4th one was good and after I beat it I went to GoG.com and bought the originals again... no way to get those old floppy disks working these days

An external floppy disc drive (just copy the files onto a disc or DVD) + DosBox do wonders. I also bought the Trilogy again on gog.com, but for sheer convenience.

[Arial Type]

I have a lot of fond memories of Gobliiins. The creators - Pierre Gilhodes & Muriel Tramis - are very talented indeed. They came up with a completely new style of adventure gaming. I don't agree when people call them "pixel hunting puzzlers". There's much more to them, with those little stories told through still pictures and heavy-animated characetrs. Games like Woodruff, Goblins 3 and Inca demonstrated some serious storytelling.

I read that at first Gobliiins were supposed to be much more complicated, mixing several genres. That's were those RPG characters (fighter, mage & thief, come on!) came from. I guess they made a right turn.
Although I was a bit dissapointed with the last installmetnt by Gildhodes. It really lacks originality and pixel art.

Oh, and you can run Gobliiins as well as other Coktel games with ScummVM easily. Although there's trouble with scrolling in Goblins 3.

[Oscar]

I think 1 and 4 are my favorites. 2 and 3 are okay, but I like the three goblin interplay and characters, I think it has the best balance.

[Schneckchen ^.^]

Originally Posted by Oscar

I think 1 and 4 are my favorites. 2 and 3 are okay, but I like the three goblin interplay and characters, I think it has the best balance.

Yeah I like having 3 characters but I really loved the atmosphere and characters of the 2nd one as well... and it's the only one with Winkle in it. I love that guy!

[crabapple]

I liked the first one. Didn't like the second. Haven't tried the 3rd or 4th.

[Oscar]

The second was good, it just lacked the characters from the first. It improved many things from the 1st game - that wretched health bar, the ability to move two characters at once, and the labelling of interactive items. Despite all that it's probably more difficult than the first, and one of the most difficult games of all time.