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

The Good
The game has a cute atmosphere and is easy to start playing.

The Bad
Well, I have a great game collection and every once in a while I get the urge to play games from the early days. It was King Quest V this time, and I must tell you some things are better left in the past...

I am not going to say anything about the sound or graphics. No point to compare it to today's standards and all that, I plan to focus only on game play and the storyline. Those two aspects of a game are eternal and are not affected by a faster processor or better graphics..

Game Play: Simply terrible. In the infamous sierra fashion few things stick out:

1) You must do things in a specific order, if you don't you can get stuck 2) You can die easily, what kind of fun is that? 3) You can get to the end of the game just to find out you can not finish it because of something you did/didn't do at the start of the game 4) Illogical puzzles

Storyline: The story does not make sense at all, first you got this annoying owl that does not do anything at all, you have a series of tasks to complete that have an educational value. You get a bunch of stuff from here, some from there and that makes up the story. When you compare KQV to modern adventure games like The Longest Journey, you can understand what I mean. R. Williams is simply a lame writer; I am not sure why she got so much fame.

When you play this game you can sense the roots of the failure of KQ8 in the air. Once games became more sophist aced, lame companies did not have a chance to survive.

The Bottom Line
Go back if you are eager for nostalgia. The only reason I play this game is because I played it 15 years ago and it brought good memories back.

The Good
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (1990) was a fabulous entry into the already groundbreaking point n' click graphic adventuring franchise. Not only did it feature a long and detailed fantasy themed quest, with plenty of new puzzles, personalities and locations, but it also dazzled us with incredible graphics and sound, which had not been seen before on a personal computer.

The NES version of King's Quest V (1992) offer most of the elements that made the computer game successful; i.e. the same fantasy themed locations, items, puzzles, personalities, etc.

It was rare for a graphic adventure computer games to make the jump onto a home console system and it is nice to be able to play a classic adventure game, without having to master DOS or own an upscale (circa 1990) personal computer.

The Bad
The 8-bit NES simply could not recreate the same high quality animation, graphics, music and sound effects created on the personal computer. What was groundbreaking for the computer, was simply not possible for the NES.

For the NES, the game's animation and graphics are all very impressive, although some items are difficult to see and the quality of background and character detail does very greatly. Yet, it is nowhere near the same experience as playing King's Quest V on the computer.

The music and sound effects are a bit of a disappointment; both in comparison to the computer and even the abilities of the 8-bit Nintendo. When they do exist, the music and sound effects are generally best left on mute.

While the later PC CD-ROM edition of King's Quest added voice talents to read the script, such a feature was simply not possible on the Nintendo, which means that you need to be ready to read lots and lots of on-screen text and [to save your progress] write down very long passwords.

Reading the instruction manual will be a requirement because there is no mouse option. You will need to learn how to cycle between the various icon commands and then use the keypad to move the on-screen arrow to the item or person in question.

The Bottom Line
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (1992) offers a long and, generally, enjoyable fantasy-themed, point n' click, graphic adventure game for the 8-bit NES. The original storyline is intact, along with the original computer game's characters, locations, puzzles and item inventory.

Gamers who played the game on the personal computer when it originally came out or even the re-release on CD-ROM, may be unable to get past the hardware limitations of the 8-bit Nintendo.

However, not many point 'n click, graphic adventure games were made for the 8-bit Nintendo and this is certainly an ambition game. Fans of the adventuring gaming genre, who can look past the hardware limitations, should give this game a try.

The Good
The graphics are dazzling, with a revolutionary sound card and easy-to-use point and click interface. Graham searches for his family, using cleverness rather than fighting to overcome his enemies. This game is great for kids and adults and I've seen whole families work together to solve it. This game isn't dated by lousy graphics, or anything else inferior for that matter

The Bad
The gameplot is incredibly inflexible; there's only one, or possibly two solutions to each problem, without even much flexibility in the order of solving problems. It's rather frustrating not to be able to do something that would work in real life, or be able to tell characters whatever you want, as you can in Ultima. Also, the maze is a pain to navigate, and the desert can take a while to map.

The Bottom Line
A wonderful game for any age. Everyone should try one of the King's Quests, preferably KQ5 or KQ6. They teach kids how to solve problems through logic rather than violence and that good deeds are always rewarded, as the hero travels through a magical, fairytale world. They show adults that even middle-aged, completely settled kings can still go out and save the world.