Windows

3 Skulls of the Toltecs

Die Suche nach den goldenen Schädeln gehört zu den erfreulichen Neulingen im Genre. Die Comicgrafiken sind sauber und die Trickfilmanimationen witzig. Hervorzuheben ist zudem die wirklich gute deutsche Sprachausgabe, die mit ihrem harten, aber herzlichen Ton einige biedere Konkurrenzprodukte locker in die Tasche steckt. Da mag verzeihlich sein, daß oft sehr viel geredet wird.

Problemen är logiska och hyggligt svåra, grafiken mycket snygg och musiken bra. Inga konstigheter egentligen, utan en precis lagom blandning som tillsammans resulterar i ett mycket bra äventyrsspel.

Despite these foibles, in the end I fell in love with this boy's best adventure of a game. It's long, hard, smart and exquisitely scripted. It has a strong visual appeal, and the cutscenes were so fun that several times I reloaded just to play a scene over again. There was even a big battle at the end, a hidden treasure room and a happy ending with a smoochy "ride into the sunset" finale that worked perfectly. 3 Skulls of the Toltecs is a game and a movie and a really fun trip that, though bumpy at times, was well worth the sore saddle at the end of this cowpoke's day.

Mit Bankraub, Gefängnisausbruch und Friedenspfeife ist 3 Skulls of the Toltecs schon eine Karikatur des Westernfilms. Dennoch orientiert sich Warners Adventure wesentlich enger an klassischen Westernvorbildern als etwa Sierras Freddy Pharkas, das auch weniger Spieltiefe und Schwierigkeiten bieten konnte. 3 Skulls of the Toltecs hat als erstes Adventure seit langem das Zeug zum Klassiker.

Ok, so it's a little dated, but it seems that adventurers can't be choosers at the moment and many of us still like this kind of 'old fashioned' adventure. The cartoon graphics are still fine and the game is fun to play. Maybe cowboys aren't as interesting or as romantic as pirates and wizards, but don't let this put you off as the puzzles will keep you generally entertained, though it does fall away as you near the end. The game is an irreverent send up of the western genre and seems influenced, if not inspired, by the television series, F Troop, even if the humour is a little suspect at times. I wouldn't put it in the same league as Monkey Island or Simon the Sorcerer, but it is worth a look if, like me, you are partial to this style of adventure.

There's gold in them thar hills! Paint your wagon! Bonanza! and so on and so forth. I love Westerns; so much cliché spread over so many games, movies and books dedicated to frontier heroes that it's overwhelming. From the rugged, lonely gunman who shoots to survive, to the eloquent but deadly bad guy, from the docile sheriff to the saloon girls with a heart of gold. Imagine my joy that several well-known Wild West clichés safely made it into this game. Imagine that joy, because the reality is that I didn't get a great deal from 3 Skulls Of The Toltecs.

Insgesamt ist '3 Skulls of the Toltecs' ein Spiel mit Höhen und Tiefen. Es zeigt viele gute Ansätze, ist aber im Endeffekt nicht wirklich ausgereift. Zu häufig wird der Spielspaß durch irgendwelche Kleinigkeiten getrübt, sei es das nervige Herumgelaufe, die Sprachausgabe oder der teilweise recht platte Humor. Fans von Wild-West-Spielen können dennoch unbesorgt zugreifen.

Warner Interactive ist mit 3 Skulls of the Toltecs ein nicht zu verachtendes Kunststück gelungen. Feinste Comic-Grafiken gepaart mit einer satten Prise Humor und zudem eine wahrlich gelungene Sprachausgabe machen die wenigen Schwachpunkte des Spiels leicht vergessen. 3 Skulls of the Toltecs ist ein Adventure ohne innovative Ideen oder extrem bahnbrechende Grafiken, dafür machct es aber eine Menge Spaß, und darauf kommt es ja letzten Endes an, gelle?

Getting over the tacky surface, 3 Skulls does earn points in the puzzle department. Everything's quite easy (as usual in 1996), but still not too obvious, making it suitable for beginners. That's all there is to it, though. For veteran players, it's all quite boring and unspectacular. Bearable for sure, but mostly unfunny (the jokes are exactly what you'd expect from a brainstorming session about Western stereotypes with a 10-year-old) and thin gameplay lost in between pointless dialogue. 3 Skulls isn't a game I could enjoy. That doesn't make it automatically bad, of course. Try it for yourself, most casual players should like it at least a enough to play it till the end. If you can't motivate yourself to do that... what is there to lose?

3 Skulls is next to impossible to find and is really not worth the search. While the game does have its aforementioned good points, the clumsy intedrface and outrageous accents destroy any sense of authenticity and diminishes the fun element. Not bad enough to gain entrance to the Dungeon of Shame and not good enough to recommend, 3 Skulls' ultimate destiny was the bargain bin--the Boot Hill of adventure games.