"What a drag, spiritual man. The bell is having a crack in it."
Yes, I know...that sound you hear is one thousand readers simultaneously giving up on the countdown. But hear me out before pronouncing my credibility DOA.
In a sea of failures, though, there is one adventure game that successfully struck the perfect balance between learning and fun: Sierra's Pepper's Adventures in Time. I suppose it is your typical crazy-attic-uncle-sends-curious-niece-back-in-time story to start with, but the journey taken by our heroine and her dog is both fun, and unbelievably educational.
See, crazy Uncle Fred sent a little dose of 70's lameism (my word, not theirs) ahead of you to colonial times. The result is the Liberty Bell being transported around by Hare Krishnas, and Ben Franklin telling you to mellow out while the British governor (this is pre-Revolution, of course) taxes the people silly. And now that I've described it that way, how can I say this game is educational? Am I advocating that you should teach your kids the power of love beads in colonial times?
Pepper's Adventures in Time implemented what is simply one of the most brilliant devices in modern adventure gaming: the Truth bubble. History has been twisted by the mellowness, to be sure, but clicking the Truth bubble on something tells you whether something really did exist in colonial times, and the amount of information contained in those responses is phenomenal. Click on the post office to learn that there were, in fact, post offices in colonial times, not to mention learn who started them and the story behind it. Click on the Hare Krishnas to find that, no, these people did not exist back then. I don't see how someone with even a remote interest in American history could possibly not want to click the Truth bubble on everything onscreen.
None of this would work, as education or entertainment, if it wasn't well-written, and that job is handled by none other than Lorelei Shannon. Yes, the mind behind the revoltingly twisted Phantasmagoria 2 brings us the best elementary school adventure game ever. Lorelei writes every line of dialogue, every item description, and most importantly every Truth bubble response. This involved an enormous amount of research, I'm sure, and her dedication to creating a high-quality learning experience is commendable. This game is nothing without her, and every negative impression I had of her from Phant 2 (a game that, trust me, you won't see on this countdown) was erased and replaced by admiration as a result of Pepper.
The real trick, of course, is that I never felt like I was sitting through another boring lecture; I felt like I was playing an adventure game. That perfect balance will most likely never be attained again in an adventure game. For that, I take my coonskin cap off to Pepper's Adventures in Time, and have no qualms calling it the #19 adventure game of all-time. You're free to disagree, of course, but I hope you won't do so too vehemently if you haven't played the game. Indulge me this one day, and I promise the countdown will only get more traditional from here on out.
Last time: Pepper did not figure into the last countdown.
Click here for the complete top 20 of best adventure games of all time!