The Legend of Kyrandia
| Developer: Westwood | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Virgin | Sound: |
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| Year: 1992 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Adventure | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
8/10 | |
The natural balance of Kyrandia is under threat from a sinister figure: Malcolm, a former court jester turned regicidal maniac—a sort of sorcerer-psychopath, in the middle between Voldemort and the Joker. You play as Brandon, grandson of Kallak, the wizard who once imprisoned Malcolm for years with a powerful spell. But now, Malcolm has escaped, and your grandfather has been turned to stone… Time for you to face Malcolm!
This is the first instalment in a trilogy of fantasy adventure games, titled Book One: Fables and Fiends. The two sequels were released on PC: The Hand of Fate (1993) and Malcolm’s Revenge (1994). In the latter, you actually play as Malcolm, the antihero of the story… Well, that’s a twist!
The mouse-based interface is delightfully simple: click on objects to pick them up and drag them onto parts of the scenery to use them. One quirky feature is the ability to drop items anywhere to free up inventory space. Just be careful not to leave them somewhere inaccessible—you know, the kind of game where getting stuck (sometimes permanently) is all part of the fun.
I recommend the CD-ROM version released for PC (and Mac) in 1993. It’s faster (no fiddling with nine floppy disks…) and vastly superior in both sound and visuals (see first link).
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