Top 20 Adventure Games of All-Time!!1!

#13: Simon 3D

Headfirst Productions – 2002

Once upon a time, a company named Adventuresoft released a game called Simon the Sorcerer, which was about a young boy named Simon who was thrust into a parallel universe where magic ruled instead of science. Nobody liked this game very much. The graphics were awful, the puzzles made no sense, and whose brilliant idea was it to cast that nobody actor Chris Barrie as the voice of Simon? A terrible choice. Adventuresoft soon created a sequel to this horrible game, aptly named Simon the Sorcerer 2. This was even worse.

Well, they say third time is the charm, and that must be true. In 2002, Adventuresoft unleashed Simon the Sorcerer 3D upon the world. And finally, I am happy to say, they got everything right! This is a very deep game. A game that one that might pass up at a first glance, but you must look beneath the surface — peeling back the layers like an onion — to see what a truly brilliant piece of work Simon 3D really is.

Simon is a upright young lad just past the brink of adolescence. His hormones are running wild, and all he wants to do is party and be wild and hit on girls. But, he can’t. Instead, he has to save the world. It is an inner conflict that we all have faced, in one way or another. And this struggle makes us empathize with him. We cheer him on. We route for him to overcome adversity. Because, by routing for Simon, we are symbolically routing for ourselves.

When Simon sprints across a field and crashes into a nearby tree, does he utter a sound? Does he express a single syllable of pain? No. That is just one example of how Simon overcomes obstacles throughout his quest, and it teaches us a valuable lesson: “Go with the flow, move where the wind takes you. And if you happen to crash into a tree, so what? Just take a few steps back and walk around the tree.” How very Zen of Simon! Adventuresoft obviously wanted this lesson to be made clear, so they made it very easy for Simon to crash into every tree, bush, fence, and house in the game world, as well as the occasional NPC.

Throughout the game, Simon will make many MANY comments about being in an adventure game. This is shocking! An adventure game protagonist who is actually AWARE of his PC status? Unheard of! This adds a whole new dimension to his character. Simon’s plight is now two-fold. Not only is he trapped in this alternate universe, but he is also trapped inside an adventure game with no way out! Imagine living with that knowledge. He has no free will, no life outside of an artificial construct, no way of getting out… AND HE KNOWS IT! They say ignorance is bliss, and he is not ignorant. Poor Simon. I admire him and yet feel sorry for him. He is a Quixotic figure, fully aware that the giants are actually windmills but he tilts at them anyway. We should all look up to such courage and bravery. Simon, I salute you.

Thank you, Adventuresoft. My life has been changed forever.

Copacobana.

(D.G.)