King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!

The Good
This was the first KQ game where you don't have aching hands from typing monotonous commands all day. Now you can just kick back and click your way through the game! That was definitely a nice addition to the series.

And most of all...... The first KQ offered in 256 color VGA!! Obviously the EGA and VGA versions look like they came from separate worlds and one would pity the person who had to play it with only 16 colors (like I did). The game was a bar-setter for the rest of the Sierra series and other game companies as well. At the time, it felt as though I was playing a cartoon... Much improved music and sound effects were added to the newest of the series which brought to life all the cartoonish environments and characters.

It was also cool how your friend, Cedric the Owl, flew around with you the whole time helping you... it made it feel as though you weren't alone on this quest and you had a little traveling buddy with ya... definitely added enjoyment to the atmosphere.

A groundbreaking classic PC adventure game with TIMELESS written all over it.

The Bad
A horrible attempt was made to transfer this game to video game consoles and failed miserably due to the fact they chose to transfer it to NES which was 8 bit. It looked and played worse than the EGA version on PC and ruined the idea of a Sierra 3D Animated Adventure Game in the eyes of many console gamers.... The PC version of the game was another flawless and classic adventure game from Sierra.

The Bottom Line
Another classic from Roberta Williams with an easy to use interface and gorgeous sound and graphic capabilities. A must play for the fans of Sierra adventure games....

The Good
It's a Roberta Williams title

The Bad
Everything else: murky colors, difficult control system, cheap graphical shortcuts

The Bottom Line
A continuation of the King's Quest franchise, KQ5 was just as good as its predecessors... until it was added to the NES lineup. Working with the obvious space limitations of a cartridge-based game, Konami's port of KQ5 for the NES had to do away with Cedric's annoying voice, but it also meant having to do away with the rich VGA colors of the PC classic. Had Konami sat on the title until the SNES, we might have had a welcome addition to the adventure game catalog. As it was hastily thrown onto the 8-bit Nintendo, I had to prevent myself -- forcefully -- from ripping the Video Master rental out of my deck and smashing it.

The Good
Kings Quest 5 was a major turning point for Sierra. The graphics were updated to include VGA, and real actors faces were used as a base for the drawings. The plot centres on King Graham, who is going for a walk and when he gets back, he discovers that a nasty wizard, Mordak, has kidnapped his family and stolen his castle. Luckily, Cedric, an owl, saw the whole thing happen. He agrees to take King Graham to his master who can help him save his family. Its a pretty fairy-tale-ish fare, but executed very well.

The Bad
The only thing that bugged me was the timing issues in certain parts of the game. For example, (not spoiling anything here) near the end of the game you must use a certain machine, but a graphical and scripting glitch prevents you from going any further in the game. So remember to save often! Other than that, it was a fantastic game that kept me immersed from beginning to end.

The Bottom Line
Kings Quest 5 is a fantastic game, possibly the best Kings Quest game in the series. You are able to get it fairly cheaply in the King's Quest Compilation, however if you live in Australia like me, you can order it from a US site, its well worth the money!