Goblins Quest 3

aka: Goblin's Quest 3, Goblins 3
Moby ID: 2870
DOS Specs
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Description

It is said that there is a mysterious labyrinth harboring great secrets that might fulfill the wishes of those who discover them. Two countries respectively ruled by Queen Xina and King Bodd have been competing over the right to explore the labyrinth. However, strange events started happening one after the other: the guardian of the labyrinth died, his daughter disappeared, and King Bodd apparently fell under some sort of a curse. A goblin reporter named Blount get caught in the midst of these events as he attempts to interview the queen and the king. As if that weren't enough, Blount also gets bitten by a werewolf and falls in love, and must find a way to deal with both predicaments.

Goblins Quest is the third entry in the Gobliiins series. Like its predecessors, it is a puzzle game with adventure elements; the emphasis is on solving complex tasks confined to smaller areas rather than on exploration. Most levels occupy more than one screen and allow limited navigation between different areas. As the reduction of the title to a single "i" implies, this installment only features one controllable goblin. However, at various points of the game Blount will require assistance from other player-controlled characters such as Chump the parrot, Ooya the magician, and Fulbert the snake. In addition, Blount's own spontaneous transformation into a werewolf may affect the solution of some puzzles. The hero will also undergo a few other mutations and drastically change his size during the course of the game.

Spellings

  • גובלינים 3 - Hebrew spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

11 People

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 23 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 57 ratings with 4 reviews)

+1 to Coktel for finally spelling Goblins right

The Good
There is a rule within the gaming industry itself which states that if you are going to make a series of games, you've got to be consistent with the title. Those wacky French guys from Coktel Vision made up their own rule when they invented the Gobliiins series: change the number of i's in the title so that it matches the number of protagonists you can control in the game, but leave the number of the sequel alone. So, in Gobliiins there were three protagonists, while in Gobliins 2, there were two.

So we are up to the third game, which features only one protagonist in the game (hence the singular “i” in the title). You play Blount, a chirpy fellow who works for the “Goblins News”. Blount is looking to score an interview with Queen Xina and King Bodd, two rulers who are trying to find their way through the Foliander maze in search of the Jewel of the World, and use it to crush the opposing team. But during his journey, strange things happen. Blount is attacked by a werewolf and he finds himself with two personas. Now he has to make the best of both worlds somehow.

The disk version of the game contains copy protection much in the same vein as Gobliins 2, so if you've played that game already you should be familiar with it. Before you can play the game, you are asked to refer to the grid, naming the color that corresponds with the grid reference. I think this method of protection is quite creative, and it reminds me of the one in Jet Set Willy.

Goblins 3 looks and feels like its predecessor, with a series of icons appearing as you move the mouse cursor near the top of the screen. Almost everything you do can be performed by clicking the left mouse button, while the inventory can be pulled up with the right mouse button. There are a couple of differences though, such as the inventory being displayed as pictures instead of words. Also, and each location in the game is too big to fit on a single screens and you have to drag the mouse all the way to the right to see more.

Goblins 3 consists of 18 screens in which you have to perform a series of tasks to progress through the game. You can go around trying anything, using inventory items on everything, to see if it works. If that's not possible, Blount will do something like get the item out, toss it into the air, catch it, then put it back in his pocket. Otherwise, you'll see Blount carry out the action. A cut-scene can be viewed after a certain number of screens.

To me, Goblins 3 is the best game in the series, for one reason alone. And that is the ability to control other characters in the game. Blount will eventually meet other characters, and the two have to work together to solve the puzzles each screen contains. Just five minutes into the game, you will see Chump the parrot hiding somewhere in the ship. The way he hops around the screen is cute. None of these characters can store any objects, so it is up to Chump to get objects and use them on others.

While the second game has a dark yellow theme, Goblins 3 has a blue theme to it. The interface (the icons and inventory in particular) have a blue background, and most of the backdrops have blue gradients. The title screen looks impressive, and the inventory stands out against the blue background, since it is represented as pictures, not words. The characters look detailed and have smooth animations. Some of the hand-painted backgrounds look stunning as well. The map consists of all the locations in the game world and the characters you meet in a specific location. Everything looks stunning against the blue background.

The soundtrack is excellent, especially the piece that plays while you are in the alchemist's lab. I can still remember it to this day. Some of the soundtracks for one screen gets reused in another. The effects are up to par with the second game, with every character speaking gibberish.

Goblins 3 has plenty of humor in it, and just about everything you do in the game will, more often than not, be quite amusing. The highlight is getting Blount into trouble to the point where he curses the player. The best part for me is just listening to the character gibberish, with my favorite kind coming from Korin, the attractive woman you meet near the middle of the game.

The CD-ROM version of Goblins 3 is available for users with a CD drive, and there are a ton of features on it, such as a introduction (missing in the disk version, probably because it aws too big to fit on a floppy) and extended cut-scenes. The normal Sound Blaster music is replaced by several audio tracks. Having played this version already, I expected a reused soundtrack from the first and second games. I was quite surprised that this was not the case at all, but a soundtrack that blends in with the screen you're on. Finally, some of Blount's gibberish gets translated into English.

The Bad
There is nothing wrong with the game itself, but I can see two things wrong with the setup program. Why have an option to change the graphics mode if it is disabled. Also, in the CD version, you have InterSound MDO and Soundblaster as audio options. I thought that Soundblaster would be the normal music you get in the disk version, while MDO would be all the audio tracks. In fact, there is no difference at all.

The Bottom Line
So in conclusion, Goblins 3 is the best game in the series, mainly because it introduces secondary characters you can control to get things done in the game. The graphics and sound is excellent, and the humor is on par with the first two games. The CD version of the game contains several enhancements, which makes this version worth buying if you own a CD drive.

All three games were released in three consecutive years, and each one takes away a protagonist. Having said that, I wasn't surprised that there were no more games after 1993. That all changed years late, when there was finally a Gobliiins 4, which features (you guessed it) three protagonists. The game is in 3D though, so it hasn't got the charm of this game.

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2016

Wacky fun filled adventure

The Good
Goblins 3 manage to keep all the good characteristics of the previous games and improve them, the interface is the classical point and click and the controls works smoothly.

The main difference in this game is that you can control only one goblin, the news reporter Blount, the using of two characters to solve a puzzle still exists as in most levels Blount has an assistance (this differs as you progress between a parrot, a wizard and a worm) that you could control, however they don't have an inventory, on some level Blount wouldn't be available for control and you would need to use other character (such as Blount's shadow or Blount's sweetheart Winona); this also adds to the versatility of the game. This change in my opinion is a great improvement as this makes the objective of the levels more clear to achieve while keeping the difficulty level the same.

As with the previous games this one also has mainly inventory based puzzles, while the difficulty level is quite hard and the puzzles pose a real challenge to the player I think most of them are more logical than those of the previous games and you only need to explore the game and apply a little logic (albeit a somewhat twisted one) to solve them.

The imaginative design and cartoonish humor also continue in this game and some of the levels are very creative and you have great fun solving them.

Another great and important addition is a screen that let you know the target of each level, this addition made the game aim much more clearer and save you time stumbling around as if you have no idea what to do. There is also a hint menu if you are stuck.

The Bad
The only downside to the game is that the Hebrew translation in which I played is badly done. Makh-Shevet, the disturber in Israel and the translator of the game into Hebrew, had made several spelling and grammar mistakes and had a tendency to change the name of the objects, for example if my mouse cursor is on an object it's name would be different that the one that in the hint menu or while speaking to another character, this had a tendency to be both annoying and confusing.

The Bottom Line
Goblins 3 is both challenging and fun to play and in my opinion is one of the best adventure games out there, I had a wonderful time playing it.

DOS · by Ingsoc (1366) · 2011

One of the weirdest, funniest and best adventures!

The Good
This is one of the funniest games I ever played. The entire game is packed with cartoon-style humor. Blount's facial expressions are just priceless. The personages you meet are just completely weird and funny as hell. During most of the game you'll have a sidekick (like Fullbert the boa constrictor, or Ooya the wizard), those are just hilarious.

The situations you get into are all completely weird. Puzzles not extremely difficult, and they make perfect sense, once you start thinking in cartoon logic that is. For the cases when you really are stuck, you can use up to five jokers to get the solution of that particular bit.

Really nice is that you switch personages during the game: part of the game you play as a flea! The alchemist's lab is also quite original: you're not walking around, but you just see your two hands flying around the room.

The Bad
The disk version is protected with an irritating copy protection scheme. With the game you get a piece of paper with about a thousand colored boxed, then the game asks the color of one of them. If you're like me, you lose that sheet within two weeks. Luckily, there are eight colors, and you get two tries, so you have a 1/4 chance of getting in.

The Bottom Line
This is a game you just have to play. I have never seen another game that came close to being as funny as Goblins 3.

DOS · by rey_ (296) · 2001

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Packaging: Jewel case? Edwin Drost (9295) Feb 14, 2017
Photo VS scan Edwin Drost (9295) Feb 8, 2017
Box for CD-ROM Version Edwin Drost (9295) Feb 6, 2017

Trivia

Amiga version

Regardless of some obvious graphics reductions, the Amiga version was deprived of some between levels screens that were going into more detail concerning the story. It did not have a big impact on the puzzles but it left the player a bit unaware why some things were happening. This Amiga version also had three tunes that were randomly played during the game.

Version differences

The game later was released on CD-ROM and featured full speech, different music and additional cutscenes. The original disk version also featured full speech of sorts. Whenever any of the characters spoke, their voices were rendered in "goblinish", a gibberish of sounds coming out in a voice appropriate to the character in question.

Awards

  • Amiga Joker
    • Issue 02/1995 – #3 Best Genre Mix in 1994 (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Lev Epshteyn

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Cravo.

Amiga added by POMAH. Macintosh added by ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

Additional contributors: MAT, Roger Wilco, Jeanne, formercontrib, Crawly, o0pyromancer0o, Macs Black, Patrick Bregger, mailmanppa.

Game added December 30, 2000. Last modified March 20, 2024.