Point-and-Click Adventures: The Rebirth of a Genre - News

by Nick Pantazis , posted on 10 April 2008 / 5,109 ViewsMany gamers, like myself, grew up in a time when there was more to the video game industry than "War: Bloody Kill Death 8." These times were the late 80s and early 90s, when an oft-forgotten genre called the Point-and-Click Adventure reigned in all its puzzle-solving and brain-twisting glory. This is an article dedicated to this this fun and unique genre that has inspired some of my favorite games.

Short History

The first story-based adventure game to feature both text and graphics was Mystery House. Considered the first of the Graphical Adventure genre, Mystery House is a 1980 Apple II game about a mysterious mansion. In the game the player is locked in a mansion with 7 other people. When dead bodies start turning up, it's up to you to solve the case before it's too late. The graphics in Mystery House were literally nothing but purple and white lines, but it was the start of something that would blossom into Graphical Adventures; the precursor to the Point-and-Click genre.

After the success of Mystery House the Graphical Adventure genre quickly blossomed. Sierra Entertainment followed suit with their own popular Adventure series called King's Quest. From 1980 to 1988 four King's Quest games and one prequel (Wizard and the Princess) were published. In 1990 King's Quest V was the first game in the series to use a Point-and-Click control system, but this wasn't the first Point-and-Click Adventure game.

The very first game in the genre is the often forgotten 1984 Enchanted Scepters. However, because the game never really achieved much sales or popularity, the game credited with popularizing Point-and-Click games is the 1987 Shadowgate. In Shadowgate you play as Lord Jairen, a Hero-King who's entered the castle Shadowgate to try and stop an evil warlock from summoning a demon and taking over the world. Yeah, it's a little cliché, but the puzzle-solving was really challenging, and the game is a cult hit even today.

For the next 10 years the genre flourished. Mostly successful on PCs, the Point-and-Click genre was a major source of revenue for many companies like Sierra Entertainment and Lucas Arts. Unfortunately, sales began declining in the mid 90s on, and by the year 2000 there was maybe 1 release a year, and it was usually an independent game. Lucas Arts released their final Monkey Island game in 2000, and the genre basically died...

The Best and Brightest

So what made this genre so awesome? A lot of great games, that's what. These are the games that really stood out to me in the Point-and-Click genre before it's demise at the beginning of the decade. I'm sure many people have different favorites in the genre, but these are just a few of mine.

The Monkey Island franchise will always have a special place in my heart as my very first point-and-click adventure series I ever played. The humor in the Monkey Island games is simpy top notch. While the puzzles weren't the best I've ever seen, they were good enough to be enjoyable, and of course the great humor and fun plot kept me interested. Sadly, the franchise ended with Escape from Monkey Island in 2000 and LucasArts is back to nothing but Star Wars games.

Another favorite of mine is Sam & Max Hit the Road. Many may not know it, but Sam & Max's first voyage into the Video Game industry was actually in 1993 with their first Point-and-Click game. Another of LucasArts's success in the genre, Sam & Max retained the completely over-the-top silliness of the comics it was based on. Sam & Max is also notable as one of the earliest point-and-click games to feature voice acting (on its CD release only).

My very favorite Point-and-Click Adventure and one of my favorite games ever is Grim Fandango. Yes, once again it's a LucasArts game (remember when they made good games?). Grim Fandango is an incredibly unique adventure game developed by Tim Schafer (also created Psychonauts). Created in an ingenious film noire style, Grim Fandango tells the story of a travel agent of the underworld investigating why some souls are denied their proper passage to the after-life. Creative, funny, and brimming with art and style, Grim Fandango has earned its spot in history. Unfortunately, it's also historically noted as one of the main reasons LucasArts abandoned the Adventure genre. It was a massive commercial flop.

The Rebirth

As I mentioned above, the Point-and-Click genre was practically dead by the end of the year 2000. LucasArts had abandoned it and everyone else that had depended on it had already gone out of business. The genre's second wind would come from an unlikely source: The Nintendo DS. Even stranger, the revival came from a country that had never been a part of the Point-and-Click Adventure's success in the 90s. It came from Japan.

Nintendo's touch-based handheld marked the release of the first commercially successful Point-and-Click game in more than 5 years. Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney, released in 2005, was the beginning of Capcom's Ace Attorney franchise. Although it originally began on the Gameboy Advance, the franchise wasn't commercially successful (nor released outside of Japan) until it was made for the Nintendo DS. Since then four games in the franchise have been released on the Nintendo DS; each with relatively good worldwide commercial success.

Along with the surprising rebirth of Capcom's Ace Attorney franchise, Nintendo hopped into the genre themselves with Trace Memory in 2005 and Hotel Dusk: Room 215 in 2006. Both received largely positive review scores, but not much commercial success. Thankfully with the low dev costs of the Nintendo DS, this hasn't deterred other developers. Level 5 and Nintendo teamed up to make 3 Professor Layton games which have achieved great critical and commercial success for their creative design, style, and puzzles. Even Konami hopped on the point-and-click adventure bandwagon with their upcoming DS game Time Hollow.

Once the DS revival kicked off, the Western PC developers weren't far behind. In late 2005 Myst V, the final installment in the franchise, launched. Although Myst is one of the fortunate few franchises that never died in the slum years. In 2006, having recently acquired the license from LucasArts, Telltale Games launched the first episode of Sam & Max: Season One. Every episode in the season has experienced critical and commercial success, mostly thanks to the popular digital distribution services Gametap and Steam. The first episode of Sam & Max: Season 2 is set to release this November, and Sam & Max: Season 1 is set to release on the Nintendo Wii this fall.

Along with Sam & Max many other adventure games have popped up. Many highly anticipated games are popping up from small companies like A Vampyre Story and The Whispered World. Old franchises are being revived like Simon the Sorcerer. Literally half a dozen games were put in development within a couple years in a genre that many thought would never return to glory. Even the home consoles are getting in on the action some with the critically acclaimed Zack & Wiki on the Wii. Sam & Max is also making its way to the console. The Wii's unique Wiimote interface has allowed for the genre to expand into consoles in a way it was never able to before. Thanks to this, the genre has also expanded to WiiWare with a new Strong Bad game.

The DS kickstarted it, but the point-and-click adventure genre is back in a big way on both PCs and consoles. There is a bright future for the genre as long as there is a low development cost solution for the games. Thanks to the Wii, DS, and digital distribution on the PC Point-and-Click Adventures are here to stay.

54 Comments

mmolichking3 (on 23 February 2009)

gurok (on 13 April 2008)

How do you define achieving worldwide success? Does anyone have any sales figures for the first Phoenix Wright DS title? I had a look at the VGChartz ones, but they just don't seem right. I'd be interested to see just how its impact could be justified with real numbers.

@shio

Totally agree with you on the digital distribution thing. The new Ankh series felt like a lead in to that. The games were pushed online, but available in stores at the same time. With Sam and Max, it was a bit different. Telltale rely primarily on online distribution, with bricks and mortar establishments as a secondary market. It's good, it works, and it certainly is where the "revival" is right now. Plus, I'm fairly certain titles like Dreamfall: Chapters wouldn't have been announced without Sam and Max.

naznatips (on 12 April 2008)

I'm not denying that the reason the games took off on the DS was the stylus. The reason isn't really the issue. The important part of that was it was the first time a P&C game had achieved worldwide success since the 90s, and it added an entire new nation to P&C development.

shio (on 12 April 2008)

@gurok
The Adventure genre never died but it became a far cry from the 90's: since 2000 we've only gotten each year no more than a couple of great adventure games, a handful of decent ones, and the rest just crap.

The revival is coming from Digital Distribution, and 'Sam & Max: Season One' was the showcase for it's viability. Hell, even the Phoenix Wright games are getting a remake and being sold for PC in episodical form.

I don't think Runaway had any impact on the revival, but to be fair Indigo Prophecy sold over 800k in 2005, before digital distribution was an acceptable revenue source.

As for the DS, the Handeld consoles always were the second platforms for Adventure games (GBA has dozens and dozens of adventure games). Unlike the PC, the genre never shrunk on handhelds, but increased slowly. But with the Stylus, the DS had an influx of more adventure releases. However the DS only represents like 15% of the Adventure market, with the rest being from PC, so the potential of the DS market is limited and by itself could never make a revival on the genre.

@naznatips
Phoenix Wright took advantage of the fact that the DS was the first console to ever allow Point&Click.
Since Japan doesn't have almost any PC gaming market the Adventure genre was never able to flourish there. But when the DS came, the first primary japanese platform that allows Point&Click with the stylus, it took the visual novel style from the japanese PC games into the DS and it brought the adventure to a popular platform in Japan.
And when we think about it, Japanese gamers probably would allow a good sales of adventures since they enjoy linear stories and puzzles.

All in all, the true reason for the success of adventures in the DS is because of stylus. Phoenix Wright is just a showcase for the Stylus' potential, just like Sam&Max is for Digital Distribution.

naz, 'that style' from Japan has existed for decades, as I explained above. There were already Visual Novel-styled Adventures in NES and SNES and PC. The reason it's successful now is because of DS' stylus. And even though it did increase sales, the DS Adventure market is but a mere fraction of the PC's market, so it could never have made a revival by itself.

Runaway was as derivative as they come, but if anything the western developers are the ones recently deviating from the traditional mold. games like 'Penumbra' or 'The Experiment' are some examples.

naznatips (on 12 April 2008)

I disagree about Runaway, as the game failed to achieve any real success outside of Europe. The reason I picked Phoenix Wright as the staple for the genre sort of kick-starting is that it achieved worldwide success. Something which hadn't been done in years. It was also the start of the genre achieving popularity in Japan.

Games like Runaway were derivative, and didn't offer enough change to really give it a boost. As of now, the genre is strong and the classic style games like Sam & Max can do well, but what gave it a second chance was the games that weren't in that style, and deviated from the standard formula. These came from Japan.

gurok (on 12 April 2008)

Good article with a lot of good facts. There's one point that I'd like to disagree with though. Runaway is generally accepted as being the first commercial hit of the "adventure game revival". I hate using the term revival, because to me, adventure games never died off completely (they just went underground). Anyway, I disagree with your suggestion that the DS somehow started it and that Phoenix Wright broke ground for adventure games. It reminds me more of games like Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective than a traditional adventure game. The majority of the games responsible for reviving the genre are more traditional point-and-click fare. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising the DS as an adventure platform (I loved Operation Undercover: Dual Motives). I just noticed that your part about the revival seemed to miss all of the important titles from 2003-2005. To me, Phoenix Wright is a bit like Zack and Wiki. It's worth a mention because it's derivative of the genre. It seems like you missed the point of the revival a bit there. Anyway, you came home at the end with a mention of the Homestar Runner title. Was that your inspiration for writing this piece?

Punisher (on 12 April 2008)

Love all those game you have listed and have them packed on dvd's, because those old cd's are almost done with their lives. (sniff)

Christhor (on 11 April 2008)

This is win just for the mention of Grim Fandango!

Esmoreit (on 11 April 2008)

It's a shame I only started gaming seriously when the genre had already died. I was 15 or so when I really started and that was 2001 - before that I only played my Snes/N64... then the PC was added.

It wasn't untill a few years later from that when I read up on games like Monkey island and Grim Fandango. Now that I call myself a gamer I see it as my duty to play these games before I kick it and have been looking ever since to no avail.

naznatips (on 11 April 2008)

Eh, I was just trying to hit the basic history of the development of the genre. Myst wasn't released till 93 when it was already established. I would have mentioned it in my favorite games if I liked Myst much heh.

stof (on 11 April 2008)

Nice article Naz. But there really should be some mention of Myst, as it was basically the Halo of point and click adventures.

radioioRobert (on 11 April 2008)

Funny this topic came up yesterday, as XPlay did a feature on Point and Click last night (4/10). They reviewed the new Sam & Max for PC (4 out of 5 stars), and then listed top 5 P&C games ever.

Don't recall everything on the list, Zack & Wiki was #5, the second Monkey Island was #2, a Myst sequel was #1. Grim Fandango was #3, I can't recall #4.

I love it when forgotten topics like this pop up in multiple places on the same day.

bardicverse (on 11 April 2008)

Agreed with Lightbleeder. Gabriel Knight II was an awesome game, as well at the 7th Guest/11th hour games "Feeling Lonely?" haha I used to rock 7th guest with the sound way up and the lights off. I nearly pooped myself a couple of times. LOL

GoodGamesLover (on 11 April 2008)

My all time sierra classic is maybe not so well known, but it was a the best they ever produced in my eyes.
I'm talking about : conquest of camelot. if you never played it and you are a true old school adventure buff, then you HAVE to download it somewhere!
It is a true gem!

GoodGamesLover (on 11 April 2008)

@darklich : indeed futurewars and operation stealth are very good games.
I'm not such a lover for cruise for a corpse, i'm not for the system. Reminds me to much of the colonel bequest and the dagger of amon ra.
Other much underrated gems are the martian memorandum series.
It began with mean streets and then martian memorandum and later came the first true cinimatic experience with the tex murphy series starting with under a killing moon then pandora directive and the remake of martian memorandum, overseer. I love the tex murphy series.

GoodGamesLover (on 11 April 2008)

I'm played many of the old adventures like the monkey islands and then hero quest on my amiga and later the pc.
I'm now collecting all the adventures i liked, which are a lot. To give a few examples : all the gabriel knights, king,police,space and kings quests , monkey island , legend of kyrandia trilogy, phantasmagoria and many many more.
My alltime favorites are all the lucasarts games. but Grim and monkey and full throttle sticks out.
@konnichiwa : Ik ben ook een vlaming, nen echte antwerpenaar! groetjes

lightbleeder (on 11 April 2008)

Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within... one of the best point & click games ever! I also remember Shivers, Phantasmagoria, 7th Guest, 11th Hour. I was a HUGE Sierra fan in the old days

darklich13 (on 11 April 2008)

Here are three that never get mentioned.

Future Wars, Operation Stealth and Cruise for a Corpse by DSI.

naznatips (on 11 April 2008)

Actually they made 2 Bone games Rocketpig.

rocketpig (on 10 April 2008)

Holy shitballs, Telltale Games made a Bone game? How did I miss that?

Has anybody else here read Bone?

Hold that thought, gotta go spend nine bucks.

StiC (on 10 April 2008)

While I own, played and loved all the Lucasarts titles ( okay I liked Escape from Monkey Is. , a little bit, I guess) my favorite is, and probably will always be, The Beast Within.

A special mention goes to the long winded, but gratifying The Longest Journey, and a nod to Southpeak's Darkside of the Moon ( I wish someone would patch the text issue)

naznatips (on 10 April 2008)

I agree. Grim Fandago should have stuck with mouse controls, but everything else was so excellent I couldn't find it in my heart to care. Basically that's how I feel about Psychonauts's gameplay as well.

Nebnosneh (on 10 April 2008)

Grim Fandango was a fantastic game, but unfortunately used a stupid game engine that fored players to use the keyboard instead of pointing and clicking.

The decision to do that always really bugged me, it was such a huge step backwards.

stclam (on 10 April 2008)

Day of the Tentacle is my all-time favourite, there were times you use your brain to play PC games

Bodhesatva (on 10 April 2008)

Just announced today, Naz.

naznatips (on 10 April 2008)

Thanks for the Strong Bad info Bod. I added it to the article. Was that just announced today? I'm kinda surprised I missed that...

@Evilducks I really couldn't disagree more. If anything the new games in the genre are expanding Point & Click beyond what it ever was in the 90s thanks to the ingenuity of the Japanese developers and the new Western companies devoted to quality in the genre like Telltale games.

The_vagabond7 (on 10 April 2008)

The original King's Quest on PC was one of the first videogames I ever played, and I have many fond memories of Sam and Max:Hit the road, and day of the tentacle. I was just a kid, and my dad thought sam and Max was a kids game, but they start using profanity in like the first 30 seconds of the game ("that's not a head, max. That's one damned ugly time bomb!"). At the time I was surprised he let me keep playing it. Great games, and I'm happy they are returning. Zack and Wiki is awesome, and I look forward to playing The ace attorney games as soon as I get a DS.

donathos (on 10 April 2008)

I would love to see some of the old point-n-click games find their way onto the Wii through one service or another. Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Deja Vu, the Monkey Island series, and even some more obscure ones (anyone ever play the Dagger of Amon Ra?).

Hell, I might even be interested in some old text adventures. :)

okr (on 10 April 2008)

For those who are interested, there are some western point&click adventures available (or soon available):

Runaway: The Dream of the Blue Turtle http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=14763
Undercover: Dual Motives http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=12901
Ankh: The Curse of the Scarab King http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=14472
Nancy Drew: The Deadly Secret of the Olde World Park http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=12900
Secret Files: Tunguska (comes for Wii & DS) http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=13786

None of these games (will) come even close to brilliant classics like the LucasArts adventures from 1987 (Maniac Mansion) to 1998 (Grim Fandango), but they are nice and it's a good start.

A recommendation to those who want to play old adventures from LucasArts / Westwood / Sierra / AdventureSoft / RevolutionSoftware / CoktelVision on new systems: No problem, buy them used or borrow a copy from a friend, download the excellent free application scummvm and play it on any system.

And a warning: Don't ever buy Myst DS - it's said to be a very very poor port.

aiden.cronus (on 10 April 2008)

i would love to play some of those games
they should put them on WiiWare
my mom loves those games on the PC
who knows how many potential buyers
they can get by adding a few games like
King's Quest & Day of the Tentacle :)

Bodhesatva (on 10 April 2008)

Telltale is making a brand new game for WiiWare now (These are the guys who did Bone and Sam and Max). It's based on Strong Bad/Homestar Runner.

Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People

http://homestarrunner.com/sbcg4ap.html
http://www.telltalegames.com/strongbad

okr (on 10 April 2008)

@D.Darko:
I'll repeat what I wrote already wrote about Beneath a Steel Sky here: http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=16304

The game is freeware now. It can be download along with a ScummVM version from http://scummvm.org/downloads.php and played on nearly any system.

The Ghost of RubangB (on 10 April 2008)

I hated Maniac Mansion but loved Day of the Tentacle. I grew up on Space Quest, King's Quest, Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender, and Full Throttle. Great stuff. Kudos to DS and Wii for somehow spicing this genre up again.

Evilducks (on 10 April 2008)

Adventure games are something best left in nostalgia. I use to believe they were an amazing genre that shouldn't have died away like it has, then I managed to get copies of the kings quests and other members of the genre and got to actually apply my now slightly more developed brain to them.

Turns out adventure games are mostly shit and always have been. Its like watching half the cartoons I grew up on again and really feeling pity for putting my parents through that in the first place. Sure, a few great ones existed like Grim Fandango, but they were few and far between.

This reminded me of a distinctly British rant I had heard referring to this very topic recently:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/3059-Zero-Punctuation-Zack-Wiki

I think he sums up the major problem most adventure games had. I guess its nice to see some games done well coming out again, but I get the distinct feeling the niche will catch on and floods of shit will follow and send the genre back to where it has been for the last decade, oblivion.

D.Darko (on 10 April 2008)

Beneath a steel sky was an awsome point and click, but my computer thinks it's too good to run it, stupid dos emulator

rocketpig (on 10 April 2008)

Every morning, I wake up and try to decide who I hate more, Bethesda or LucasArts.

Bethesda for buying Fallout and LucasArts for turning from what was possibly the most intelligent, cutting-edge developer in the world to a steady flow of rehashed Star Wars games that no one cares about.

Damn it. Just thinking about it pisses me off.

shio (on 10 April 2008)

Grim Fandango is the pinnacle of storytelling, along with Planescape: Torment. Last year I bought a budget release of GF for €10, even though I had already played years ago. It just felt so nice to replay it and have a legal copy.

konnichiwa (on 10 April 2008)

Aargh merde X_X.

konnichiwa (on 10 April 2008)

Je suis flamand libellule, mais je comprend Français aussi.

Merci beaucoup.

libellule (on 10 April 2008)

@konnichiwa,

LucasArts games are not abandonewares so u can't dl them LEGALY for free but using emule/bitorrent u may be able to find some emulator and the games themselves.

naznatips (on 10 April 2008)

Grim Fandango isn't a great game. It's a Masterpiece. An incredible work of art that should be revered.

Omac (on 10 April 2008)

I like the Quest for Glory 1 - 4 by Sierra. Mixed good ol humor and some stat building along with your point and click.

libellule (on 10 April 2008)

@konnichiwa,

I m not sure but you can try here :

http://www.abandonware-france.org/

since u come from belgium, u may understand it (are u Wallon or Flamand ?)

MaxwellGT2000 (on 10 April 2008)

So far the point and click games on Wii haven't done as hot as some of them should (BUY ZACK AND WIKI foams at mouth) but hopefully we'll get a whole line of great, new and inventive point and click games, its a genre that has always supported new ideas and innovation and thats what the Wii is all about.

darklich13 (on 10 April 2008)

http://www.scummvm.org/

darklich13 (on 10 April 2008)

I'll just say one word

"SCUMM"

Reasonable (on 10 April 2008)

Grim Fandango is just such a great, great game. I replayed it on my portable recently and felt it just crushed most games today for invention, fun gameplay and fantastic storytelling.

GIO (on 10 April 2008)

I remember two point and click games i grew up with and loved them both. They were both on the pc, the first one was from seirra~ Echo the Dolpin and the secone witch was awesome was from lucas Arts~THE DIG~ I still remember those games like it was yesterday.....

konnichiwa (on 10 April 2008)

I want a new monkey Island X_X.

=/. Can I download those games somewhere?

FilaBrasileiro (on 10 April 2008)

I loved all the Lucas Arts adventure games, Indy, Sam and Max, Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Dig, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, etc...but it's a dead genre now, but I loved it while it lasted.

dawve24 (on 10 April 2008)

I loved the monkey island games.

NYCbarbarian (on 10 April 2008)

I was addicted to Sam and Max and Day of the Tentacle

hunter_alien (on 10 April 2008)

Man ... I remember when I played Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island games ... they where so much fun . I actually had good times with them . True , I would never go back entirely to that now , that I can get even on the go a blody god of war in full 3D , but I would play a couple of adventure games / year :)

That Guy (on 10 April 2008)

don't forget other games like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis.

Day of the Tentacle was also a point/click game (which may have predated Sam and Max).

I personally liked all the Space Quest games.

Existing User Log In

New User Registration

Crunchyroll to Release Anime Hub on PS5 in Spring 2027

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls - Phoenix Cyclops DLC Launches November 2

More Staff 'Returning to Work' at Star Wars Zero Company Dev After Being Furloughed

Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition Launches October 28 for Switch 2

Point-and-Click Adventures: The Rebirth of a Genre - News

More Articles

Popular Stories