Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier

The Good
The humor. Period. This is almost certainly the funniest SQ game released, and almost every text box read by Gary Owens is hysterical. Their radio commercial jingle for "Soylent Clear" is an absolute classic. ("Less people too, like me and you, and less reprocessed waste!") There's nary a sci-fi movie (or game) made which isn't lampooned. And, unlike previous adventures, this is a rather lengthy game.

The Bad
The gameplay just didn't feel like Space Quest. The puzzles were way too convoluted for my taste, often with very little payoff. We're talking some on the level of Monkey Island 2, with you having to spend two days, solving a half-dozen puzzles (each with multiple steps), just to turn a lousy dial or something. (which, in turn, is just part of a bigger puzzle) The cartoony graphics sometimes worked really well, and sometimes fell flat.

The Bottom Line
If you can find it for cheap, it's worth picking up JUST for the humor. It's a shame this couldn't be made into a movie; it's far funnier than Spaceballs or any other parody.

The Good
Well there were great moments in this game that made me laugh so hard. (Mr souent commerical) (First Beam Down) (Boot Liquor) (Stoge Fighter 3) (The rejection note from Ken Williams) The opening sequence was classic Space Quest. (Note to future designer of SQ. Should you be so blessed as to be able to do another sequal please keep Gary Owen, without him this game would have been a total mistake.)

The Bad
First of all The game was much shorter than a normal adventure game. I finished the game this weekend (started sat finished sun) (note that I cheated a little on some of the puzzels so it didnt take as long as it should, but even still there wasnt that much in the game) Basicly there was only 4 locations that the game took place in. (Pollysorbate 60, Deepship 86, sorbi's planet and then a surprisingly short period inside santago). I was very surprised that this game was over so soon. But also I though that the lines with Santago & Roger were horrible. I found myself clicking through the dialogue just so we could get back to the laughs. The ending with roger and santago was a great example of how they went off track in this game. I have loved the Space Quest series. I hold this game very dear to my heart because it was one of the first great adventure games that I ever played (SQ3). SQ6 didnt feel like a space quest though. It almost felt like that the orginal makers of SQ left after writing the Polysorbate 60 lines and then someone else took over to quickly finish the game so it could be sold. It is sad that Sq6 isnt as funny as the others. I hope that someone will give this series another try but I fear that the end has come. And if it has then SQ6 was a terrible way to go. :-(

The Bottom Line
No where near as funny as the other Space Quest's. I recommed only to experienced Sq players that havent played it yet. BUT not to players that have never tried any of the others. I would hate to give people the impression that all of the other SQ's are just like 6.

The Good
This is a great spoof on sci fi! Sporting numerous major sci-fi movie/games/etc. sequences that will have you chuckling and laughing nonstop, making full use of a great and often wacky sense of humor.

The graphics are nicely made using plain 2D sprites which give the game a unique feeling and a great sense of humor (those aliens wouldn't be nearly as humorous if they were digitized or pre-rendered characters). And there's also a nice sense of exploration thrown into the game, as you don't get to die as often as before. Finally, the puzzles are usually on the good side of things, which is a must for these types of games.

The Bad
Unfortunately it's not that good a game. The fun is there, but the game at times feels like a Frankensteinian creature made of disjointed parts that don't really fit well together. Some of the sequences are fun (Polysorbate!) and others are merely ok (inside Santiago) but the problem is that these sequences seem to be stitched together using nothing but chicken wire and duct tape! You spend 3/4 of the game playing one game, and then somehow you are thrusted into a crappy "Fantastic Voyage" spoof and then a hasty ending that leaves you high and dry. Add to that the usual problems of graphic adventures (hunt the pixel!) a more cookie cutter and less edgy approach (family friendly Wilco!!) and a mostly simplistic design (they even got rid of most action-like sequences!) and you've got yourself a merely ok graphic adventure that tries but never quite manages to reach it's predecessors.

The Bottom Line
Very funny but ill-conceived game. Quite frankly SQV was much more entertaining, and this game simply fails to achieve the level of cohesiveness that made it's prequels not just funny spoofs, but good games too.

Still it's worth the shot for the sake of all the sci-fi references and in-jokes.