King's Quest: Quest for the Crown

"Old graphics, old gameplay, and old fun!"

The original King’s Quest, the first one, was made way back around 1983 and 1984. I’ve heard both, so I am not sure when exactly it was made. You can really tell that this was a VERY early game, just by the graphics and gameplay, but I’ll explain those in their own separate sections. Is KQ1 any good for anything but nostalgia, or is it just plain crap? Check out this review, and you will find out my two cents.

GRAPHICS 6/10

If you handed KQ1 to a new gamer, and had them play it, they would probably complain about how much the graphics stink. The game was made in 1983-84 so of course the graphics would not be the best, but just think of what it was like back then. The graphics were amazing back then. There was animation, several objects, and some very colorful characters. Nowadays, the graphics are horrible, but I don’t care. I’m sure they bring back memories for older gamers, so I’m giving this section a 6.

GAMEPLAY 5/10

KQ1 combined both text and graphics into one game. You would control your character on screen, but to do certain things, you would have to type it out. For example, to talk to the king, you’d type “talk king”. If you wanted to open a cabinet, you’d type “open cabinet”. It’s that simple. I liked that part of the gameplay.

If I liked that part, then why did I give this section a 5? I gave this a 5 because moving your character on screen sucks. All you use is the arrow keys, but when you push one, your character moves that way and doesn’t stop moving until you push that key again or another arrow key. The thing that I really dislike about it is that it’s soooooo slow. It seems like forever for the character to move from screen to screen. Booooorrrrriiiiinnnnngggg.

During play, you can push the ESC button to access the game menu. From there, you can save your game (thankfully), restore your saved game, view your inventory, try and speed up the game, and there is some other things I don’t remember. Atleast you can save your game at any point. Yay.

SOUND 6/10

There were no Soundblasters back in the early 80’s, so KQ1 used the PC speaker. There’s no music in the game, but there is sound effects. There’s nothing too bad, nor is there anything too good. If you repeatedly die, then the sound effect it makes after you die will become annoying, but otherwise I haven’t had a problem with the sound.

FUN FACTOR 5/10

Is KQ1 fun? Yeah, kind of. You will probably enjoy it the first time you play it, but after that it won’t be as much fun, especially if you’ve found all of the points the first time through. If the character wouldn’t move so darn slow, I think it would be a better game.

REPLAY VALUE 6/10

I wasn’t sure what score to give this section, but I finally decided on a 6. You will play KQ1 more than once to find all of the points, if you can. Other than that, I can’t think of any other reason to go through the game again.

CHALLENGE 10/10

KQ1 is actually a short game, but there is tons of ways to play it. Unless you have a walkthrough, you won’t get all 158 points your first time playing through. Some of the points are very hard to find, and it seems almost impossible to find where they all are without a walkthrough. I challenge you to go through the game without knowing where anything is, and I bet you won’t get all of the points. Good luck.

IS IT WORTH A BUY?

Normally, I have this section called “Rent or Buy?”, but since you can’t rent PC games, I’ve changed it. You should buy KQ1 if you can find it cheap. It’s not worth anything more than $10, but you should check it out for nostalgia reasons.

WHAT’S HOT

- A great classic
- Combines text and graphics in a good way
- If you don’t get all 158 points, you may want to play through the game again

WHAT’S NOT

- The ugly graphics compared to today’s games
- Controlling your character
- Falling from a beanstalk over and over again

FINAL ANALYSIS:

King’s Quest is an old classic that every gamer should play at one point or another, just to see what it was like back in the early 80’s. I don’t think it’s that hard to find, so you should pick it up if you can get it cheap. Overall, this game gets a 7 out of 10 from me, Shady. Booyah.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/00, Updated 06/24/00