The First Annual Just Adventure Awards
The First Annual Just Adventure Awards
By Just Adventure Staff
February 1, 1999
If you want to read “normal” awards–best game, best graphics, etc.–then you need to go to another webzine. As our readers know, we here at Just Adventure like to do things a little differently–sure, we will have some of those normal awards, but we will also throw in a few surprises. First of all, instead of arguing amongst each other as to what we thought the game of the year was, we have decided to each choose our own favorites for the year. That way, if you are partial to Jenny’s opinion in reviews, then you are sure to agree with her viewpoint. Secondly, you will notice that some of our awards are off the wall. We hope that we never become trite and predictable like many other web sites have become. So grab yourself a bucket of popcorn and a joystick and sit back and enjoy the ride. Thanks for a great first year, everybody!
| Randy’s Picks | Jenny’s Picks | Craig’s Picks |
Best Adventure Game of the Year:
A tie between Sanitarium and Grim Fandango. Sanitarium: No, it did not have the best graphics, nor the best plot or music. But all around, it was the most engrossing, well-written game I played this year. Grim Fandango: Okay, so this game did have the best graphics and voice acting and memorable characters, but what else would you expect from LucasArts?
Best Action/Adventure Game of the Year:
King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity: Yes, it could have had shorter load times, but let’s hope this is the groundwork for future action/adventure hybrids.
Best Graphics of the Year:
Grim Fandango: The colorful noir skeletons still haunt my imagination.
Best Plot of the Year:
The Blackstone Chronicles: It can only be a good thing when a writer of John Saul’s stature enters the field. It didn’t hurt that the plot for BC is truly horrific either.
Best Voice Acting of the Year:
Grim Fandango: If you have played it, you will understand.
Most Underrated Game of the Year:
Dark Side of the Moon: I really wasn’t expecting much from this game after I saw it at E3. Never underestimate Lee Sheldon.
Biggest Disappointment of the Year:
Starship Titanic: I’m a huge fan of Douglas Adams, but this game was a real snoozer.
Game Most Worthy of a Sequel:
It’s a tie between Sanitarium and Blackstone Chronicles. Either game would be tops on my must-play list.
Best Trend:
Action/adventure games.
Worst Trend:
Action/adventure games.
Best Marketing Gimmick:
Piranha sent out stuffed piranhas (what else) on a wooden base. Way cool.
Company Most in Need of a New PR Manager Award:
Cryo runs away with this award. Their consistent refusal to provide information on new adventure releases despite our best attempts is truly baffling. It is as if they don’t want anyone in the United States to know that they have a new game on the market.
Godzilla of Games Award:
The big lizard was a dud at the box office and so are Mask of Eternity sales figures. Not that it is a bad game, mind you, but due to antiquated marketing techniques it has failed to generate the attention it deserves. Action gamers are not playing it and adventure gamers are afraid to try it. Roberta deserves better support from Sierra.
The “No Games for Gamers” Award:
To Interplay for their “temporary” cancellation of Star Trek after hyping the crap out of it for the past two years.
The “We Love Adventure Games So Much, it Hurt Us to Make Fun of Them” Award:
Gamespot wins this hands down for their editorial by Stephen Poole ridiculing adventure games and gamers. Repeated e-mails to their site asking them if they would like to debate the issue have gone unanswered. Guess it must hurt too much to think.
The “Oops, We Goofed” Award:
Goes to the Games Domain Review for reviewing an unfinished version of The Blackstone Chronicles. Only after John Saul took them to task did they grudgingly admit to their “oversight.”
The “Fool You Once Shame on Us, Fool You Twice Shame on You” Award:
Games Domain Review is a two-time winner! Their review of Dark Side of the Moon mentions bugs that, according to Southpeak, are nonexistent. Southpeak is fighting back on the newsgroups. Stay tuned for further news on this one.
The “Strike Three and You’re Out” Award:
GDR pulls the triple crown of awards as their newest hack job skewers King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity. GDR editorial staff responds to the readers’ criticism by threatening to take their web site and go home.
Most Overused Cliche (Is That Redundant?):
Sword-fighting skeletons. First Redjack and then Redguard feature battles with these bone-rattling opponents. Not enough for you? Then play Quest for Glory V and Mask of Eternity to face off against more ferocious femurs.
The “Ain’t We Cute” Award:
Goes to Adventure Central for constantly advertising their site on our message board. As if that isn’t bad enough, they also like to occasionally publicly chastise JA on the same board. Jeez, you guys should spend as much time on your own site.
The “Lara Croft of the Internet” Award:
Goes to Cindy at the Adventure Zone. Her daily adventure updates on the Warzone site are great. I wish she wrote for us.
Let me first just say that I am only picking from games I have played. There are many 1998 adventure games that I have not played yet–the most notable games still on my shelf are The Blackstone Chronicles, Nightlong, and Redguard–and I’m sure I have neglected to mention many others.
The “I Never Want to Play Another Game Because Nothing Else Could Be as Good” Award for Best Adventure Game of the Year:
I was told by my editor that I’m not allowed to say Grim Fandango, which is my real pick, for fear this article would turn into a Grim Fandango rave, so instead I pick Dark Side of the Moon. It had a truly engrossing plot, extremely well-integrated puzzles, intuitive gameplay, and beautiful graphics.
The “I Never Want to Play Another Game Because This Game Has Soured Me on the Whole Experience” Award for Worst Adventure Game of the Year:
The Ring by Cryo. Read my review for details on why I thought it was a stinker. In a nutshell, it had an incomprehensible plot and hackneyed puzzles.
The “Could’ve Been a Contender” Award for Most Flawed Game of 1998:
Black Dahlia would have been one of the greats if not for its insurmountable bugs. The company, Take 2, put out a patch that didn’t fix much and then became totally uncommunicative, even to the point of disappearing from the Internet, when pressed for further help.
The “To Put It Simply, You Suck” Award for Worst Game Publisher:
Take 2. See immediately above.
The “Keep ‘Em Coming” Award for Best Game Publisher/Designer:
Southpeak, for Dark Side of the Moon, and Lee Sheldon, the game designer, for his willingness to offer up hints on the adventure games Usenet forum. I really like that Southpeak lets him mingle with the masses, on top of releasing a totally bug-free game.
The “Run Away with Me–Your Voice Melts My Panties Clean Off” Award for Best Voice Acting:
Definitely goes to the actor who played Manny in Grim Fandango. Sorry, oh editor o’mine, I had to say it–nothing else even came close for quality of voice acting (by all players, not just the Manny character).
The “Run Away from Me Before I Kill You So I Don’t Have to Suffer the Misery of Playing Another Game with You in It” Award for Worst Voice Acting:
The main character in Sanitarium. Mind you, I really enjoyed this game a lot overall and would heartily recommend it to anyone, but the hero was just awful. Reminded me of that horrid, insipid George Stobbard in the Broken Sword games–same actor, maybe?
The “Hang It in the Louvre” Award for Best Graphics:
Grim Fandango, er, um, I mean Morpheus. Maybe I am just partial to Art Noveau, but Morpheus contained a well-imaged and very artistic game world.
The “Well, Tickle Me Pink” Award for Biggest Surprise:
Sanitarium. It looked like a dud on the box, but I bought it anyway, and then it turned out to be really good. I liked that the couple of arcade sequences were really easy, and I liked the way the plot unfolded a little at a time and came together at the very end.
The “Bummer, Man, Fifty Bucks Down the Tubes” Award for Biggest Disappointment:
Mask of Eternity. I got through the Dimension of Death, then simply became bored with all of the hacking and slashing and played something else instead. I have not gone back to MOE yet and may never. I set the combat on “easy” (and thank God it has that option) and it still took me about 15 hours to get to the swamp area. I estimate about half an hour of that time was spent on the adventure elements and the other 14.5 hours were spent just killing things. I freely and happily admit, though, that I don’t like combat, and I don’t like this 1998 trend of putting it in adventure games. Presumably developers are doing it to attract bigger audiences, but I think it is backfiring–they wind up alienating both the diehard action players and the diehard adventure players because the hybrid games don’t contain enough of either element to satisfy anyone.
The “Best Garage Game” Award:
(A “garage game” is kind of like a “garage band” for you unfortunate souls not in the know.) Cracking the Conspiracy. I haven’t played it yet, but as far as I know, it’s the only garage game released in 1998. I would like to see this trend continue.
The “Best Free Game” Award:
The Lost Island of Alanna. Again, as far as I know, it’s the only free game released in 1998. For those of you who never heard of it, it was a download from the Diet Coke web site. I would also like to see this trend continued.
The “What’s the Point?” Award for Worst Ending:
The Lost Island of Alanna wins this one, too. By completing the quest, you earn a Diet Coke ad. That’s why it was free, I guess–they were hoping the game would make you thirsty so you’d have to go get a soda and Diet Coke would be uppermost in your mind. (It backfired on me, though–I only drink the cheap store-brand sodas because they taste the same and cost half as much.)
The “What the Hell Did That Mean?” Award for Best Ending:
I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I like Morpheus for this one. I thought about it for some time after I finished the game and came to the conclusion that it was perfect–no other ending could have possibly made more (or depending on your point of view, less) sense.
The “Best Other (I Mean Besides Just Adventure) Game Web Site” Award:
Quandary–check it out at http://www.iinet.net.au/~quandary/. Even though they discuss other genres, their adventure game reviews are well-balanced and informative.
Best Adventure Game of the Year:
This award must go to Grim Fandango. It is the game that gave me the most satisfaction and even warranted a replay. LucasArts deserves the kudos.
Best Sleeper Hit:
Morpheus is the best game that no one will play. Okay, maybe that’s stretching it, but good luck finding it!
Worst Game of the Year:
Starship Titanic wins this award. It just really, really sucked. Sorry, but this game doesn’t even deserve a well-written summary.
Bravest Game Designer:
Roberta Williams is the lucky lady for designing Mask of Eternity. It doesn’t seem to please adventure gamers or action gamers. What a rut.
Best Public Relations:
Bob Chase over at Southpeak deserves this award. His continued help and support has helped make Southpeak a wonderful company to speak with. It’s always great to have a steady supply of Southpeak adventure/kids’ games without even asking.
Worst Public Relations:
Peter Binazeski over at Simon & Schuster Interactive is a real stinker of a PR manager. I’ve talked to him three times already and he has promised to send me a copy of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but I have yet to see it. My co-editor has tried to call him numerous times as well, but he doesn’t answer his calls. Hope you’re reading this, Peter.
Best Co-Editor:
Randy Sluganski, my wonderful co-editor. Way back in May, he agreed to cover E3 for us, and since he has pretty much taken over the site and got us worldwide recognition. He must have popped out dozens upon dozens of interesting articles and reviews and doesn’t seem to stop. He must be running on Energizer batteries.
Best Adventure Game Web Site:
I must say that Cindy KM over at AdventureZone does a fantastic job maintaining her adventure news web site. Randy and I both agree she earns this.
Second-Best Adventure Web Site:
I myself love the GDR Traveler’s Inn. Barak Engel writes fantastic reviews and provides interesting editorials. If you can keep in mind that not everyone has the same opinion as you do, visit his web site often.
