The Neverending Story

The Neverending Story is one of my favorite books; I got a red-and-green text hardback german version in my youth and used it as part of my tools to learn German.

The movie, while good, isn't as great as the book, which has wonderful themes about self-identity, growth, love and the meaning of life.

This game slaughters both the book and the movie and leaves nothing of their themes.

This is a text adventure for the Spectrum (it comes in 3 parts in the version I played). I played it on the fuse emulator.

You wander around a map as Atreyu. You can carry five inventory items which are represented visually on the screen. There are two main kinds of items: standard adventure items that have nothing to do with the story, and items from the story that have no clear use in the game. Puzzles consist of grabbing most things you can find (there is a 5-item inventory limit and about half of items are red herrings) and then using each item in one spot. The game has a background timer (needed for one or two puzzles) so if you take time to think it has automatic input every few seconds.

The game contains no item descriptions, character descriptions, or player-initiated conversation. You run into characters and it just says 'look, it's Rockbiter' and you get a small pixel portrait of their face. Very occasionally the characters will do something. Falkor was the worst; you can summon Falkor and it just says 'Falkor is here", then you 'take Falkor' and you have him.

I love richly described games with emotional themes and interesting interactivity. This had none of that. One of the best books I've read, with no themes at all in its adaptation. No messages of love or courage or anything. Of course this is due to constraints, but Adventure has more compelling descriptions and emotions than this (like the Bear and the Volcano, or the creepy mirror) and better interactivity/clever puzzles like the eggs.