Little Big Adventure (or Relentless)

[toblix]

Just finished this game for the second time. I was expecting to start playing it and then stop because of being disappointed by the nineties graphics and gameplay that wasn't as great as I remembered, but the game is actually still fun! Also, although the character models are really ass compared to the lady with the big breasts in the spaceship in Unreal II, the 2d tiles that are used are wonderfully beautiful and pretty and colorful and fantastic. The gameplay is pretty good too, by which I mean that it's not extremely hard or unforgiving but challenging, and there's a feeling of progress as you get better balls.

Also, there's this great effect of playing this cartoony, childish-looking game that's really about oppression and totalitarianism (in a way), with comically fat soldiers that shoot colored spheres at you but still feel a bit like nazis. There's a bit of having to run back and forth through the same place, which sucks a bit, but the fat nazis explode when they die, with a pop, and then a coin or a heart comes. And there's a jetpack and little elves with keycards, and the best part of it is that once you've played this game, you can continue by playing LBA2 (or Twinsen's Odyssey), which is a truly great masterpiece, so it's a shame I just found out my LBA2 CD is broken and I can't download it from anywhere.

Anyway, if you liked BG&E, or didn't, you should play it. I'd post screenshots, but:

1. I'm too lazy
   
2. I hear that linking to screenshots from MobyGames makes closeups of penises appear instead.

Here's a link, though. And the music is really cool (in the game, not the link)!

[Lechimp]

Do you know where I can find that program that will let me play Relentless on modern systems? Both of the Little Big Adventure games were great and yeah, they did feel a bit like Beyond Good and Evil.

[Moosferatu]

I think I played the demo for the second one years ago. If I remember correctly, after wandering around some town it jumped to some point later in the game that involved combat and/or jumping. I really sucked at it. I think that made me not want to get the game despite all the good things I'd heard about it. How hard are the plateforming parts, and how much of the game is made up of them?

[toblix]

LbaWin is the Gentleman of Relentless in Windows. It even lets you turn off that annoying running-into-walls stunning effect.

Oh, and I wouldn't say there's a lot of platforming, but that might be a lie. It's a while since I played the second one. Let's just say you shouldn't be afraid of jumping from platform to plaform over an open pool of lava. But mostly it's, I dunno, arcade adventure, sort of. With balls (magic balls!).

[brkl]

The first one is better anyway.

[Roderick]

I always thought the LBA-games were pretty difficult. I played the second one a couple of times, and there are a few fights and platforming bits that are quite unfair at times. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is very unique.

I never really got into the first one. When I tried it once, I got to some temple where there was a fight waiting for me that I deemed impossible at the time (we're talking 8 years back or course).

[toblix]

Yeah, I guess a lot of people find the fights difficult, because if you get into one, you're pretty much screwed. Almost all the enemies attack faster than you, so that if you're hit, you're caught in a short cycle of stunning hits and then you die.

The secret, of course, is not to engage in close combat, but to attack from a distance with the ball. Sometimes it's hard, when they're coming for you, but usually they don't take a lot of hits before they explode into some sort of reward.

Also, you should just avoid most of the enemies. Run past them.

[elmuerte]

LBA isn't a fighting game, it's often best to avoind fighting or at least try to be tactical and use the environment and the magic ball (balls bounce).

The LBA2 demo showed both sides of the game, the adventure part and the action part. There are only a couple of annoying parts in LBA2 to get past. The most annoying part in the whole game is probably getting around celebration island where you had to jump over lava, way to easy to die

But still great games to play. They're quite replayable. Never though of the games as difficult, although the first one was more difficult than the second one. Then again sometimes you just need to know how to behave under certain circumtances.

[brkl]

I never really got into the first one. When I tried it once, I got to some temple where there was a fight waiting for me that I deemed impossible at the time (we're talking 8 years back or course).

LBA 1: The only game I've bought that I've also broken (snapped CD in half) on purpose.

It's a sweet game.

[toblix]

LBA 1: The only game I've bought that I've also broken (snapped CD in half) on purpose.

Whoa!

[MechaGisle]

Driving the buggy in LBA2 was a whole little game in itself.

The fights were so hard they had me shouting at the screen, but when I finally made it I was superhappy.

Both the games rank high on my favourties list.