I jumped into Goblins 3 without every playing the first two. Apparently the first two games were decidedly better then the third. However, since I did not play them, I was unbiased when I plugged this game into my computer for the first time, and thus I enjoyed the game. The graphics are very appropriate for the style and the genre. They employ a kind of cartoons quality and use bright colors to take advantage of the humor the game portrays. The backgrounds are very nicely drawn and I remember the overall graphics to be top notch for any type of game of its time.
The story was adequate and took you threw a variety of levels such as a pirate ship, a dungeon, an alchemists lab, a life sized chess board, and even one where you gain wings. Very early on you are bitten by a werewolf, and this leads to some pretty funny scenes as your character sometimes transforms into a mean old wolf. The overall idea is to save the main character, Blount’s, girlfriend, Wynona. She has been kidnapped by an evil king named Bodd. The game progresses as Blount goes from stage to stage trying to reach Wynona and defeat Bodd.
The game-play and puzzles were pretty fun, if not pretty difficult. Luckily you were given a number of hints that you could use
if you ever got stuck. The puzzles were appropriate for each level, and except for a few times, used a certain amount of logic and sense to figure out. For example, using a spice on a dragon makes sense as the spice will make the dragon sneeze and unable to breath fire.
Essentially the music boils down to simply midi notes that run over and over again. The only really redeeming factor is that music sort of tones itself for which stage it on, spooky for the spooky levels, and bright and cheery for the cheery ones. The sound effects aren’t much better. Speech is horrible and is essentially just a garble of noise whenever anyone speaks.
So overall, this game rates pretty high in my list of top games. The fact that it was one of the first games I’ve played probably helps. But the colorful characters, interesting and challenging puzzles, and overall story made Goblins stand out amongst the others. Now, if I can only get a hold of the first two, I’ll see if they really do outshine the third.
