Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Legend of Badminton Prologue Game Review

Sir Pirlock in Jail
(10/06/2016) --- What a nice and cute little game, the Legend of Badminton is. The game brings a reminiscent of the old SCUMM games such as Monkey Island, Loom, Sam and Max, Grim Fandago, Maniac Mansion among others (SCUMM, Wiki) but adapted through a simple interface of three actions that are compatible with the enviroment.

The Legend of Badminton is set in a continent that is reminiscent of the medieval times of our Earth; but, there is a dispute between different kingdoms for the Earldom of Badminton that is controlled by a wannabe Earl named Sir Pirlock who is with the idea to recover the former glory of the Earldom that was left by his late father.

The game-play is quite straightforward, is mostly puzzled oriented in is episodic wise. The prologue was released on 2014 and there hasn't been any new updated towards the official website; within the exception that there is a crowdfunding process in progress (Hernandez-Muñoz) but there is not enough information to know when the next chapter date will be. Leaving the game to think that is in the limbo.

Rapido and Pirlock
The gameplay is set between Spanish and English, there are some grammatical mistakes as well some jokes are lost in translation between both languages, leaving the experience to be enjoyed at the best within the Spanish option.

The story is actually quite quirky and the dialogues are incredibly funny. It explores the ideas of same-sex attraction, failure, discomfort to the status quo and living in a probable madness.

The idea that the game is just a mere fantasy coming from Pirlock head can be well sustained as he seems himself surrounded in a heroic journey of rebellion mixed with a rat that talks only to him but not to anyone else. It is so strange how to think that Pirlock could be a normal person while other characters treat him as if he had some mental health problems.

On a certain point Pirlock starts hesitating if everything is in his head, because it's faithful companion in his adventure is a talking rat which could be probably a figment of a delusion in which he is living in. Because, there are no such things as a talking rat or giant spiders that live under a well.

The scenarios are actually quite lovely as well the character designs, they evoke this old era of video gaming that is really gone; a beautiful factor of nostalgia from an era that gaming was simple and yet beautiful. It reminds me of the third incarnation of Monkey Island (The Curse of Monkey Island, Wikipedia) and Grim Fandago, just to name a few.

The proposal coming from Carmen Hernandez-Muñoz is actually refreshing and entertaining, is strange that after almost 2 years there aren't any more episodes or information in general about the development of the game at all. It is also understandable that being an independent developer is not easy, especially within a market that craves graphics over quality, which is a reason I firmly believe in supporting independent developers around the world towards their creation.

The map
A good way to support Carmen and her game, is to go to the official Legend of Badminton Facebook page (Legend of Badminton, Facebook) in which there is information on how to donate to the crowdfunding campaign to help her team to bring new chapters, or even saying hello and giving a nice compliment about the game itself.

References:


  1. Web retrieved: SCUMM - Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCUMM
  2. Web retrieved: Hernandez-Muñoz, Carmen. The Legend of Badminton: http://www.legendofbadminton.com/?lang=en
  3. Web retrieved: The Curse of Monkey Island - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Monkey_Island
  4. Web retrieved: Legend of Badminton Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BadmintonianResistance/