Yeah, Do That
When Tim Schafer started collecting money for a Psychonauts sequel, I let out an audible sigh.
I love Psychonauts. Like any true gaming elitist prick or kid that saw that one episode of XPlay, Psychonauts is on my top 50 favorites list.
The LucasArts adventure games he worked on are all on that same list. Except the Monkey Islands… I’m not sure why I didn’t like them…
Why would I sigh indifferently then if I love so many of his games?
Simple. Its time has passed. I’d rather see a new IP. Psychonauts was a complete experience for me. No need for a sequel.
It would be like reviving Firefly. We all kinda want to see it but worry it would dissapoint us or fail to capture the original magic. Besides, The Avengers Movie was fucking sweet.
In other words. Let the past remain in the past use your awesome talent and make something new.
The real heart of this post isn’t my potential disappointment in Tim Schafer or the frivalty of donations to sequels. No dear reader this is about The Neverhood; a game that embodies an era of my upbringing as much as Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. If I add Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood together it makes an entire awesome summer for me in 1996 or a “greatest hits” list for artist/creator Doug TenNapel.
He and the folks at Pencil Test Studios have A Kickstarter Worth Backing in the form of a new point and click adventure game called ARMIKROG.
I might personally be moved to contribute something myself.
EA did something inadvertently positive. They kept the rights to The Neverhood and forced the Pencil Test to develop a new game. If EA weren’t such dicks, this would probably be a sequel too and thus unmake the praise I’ve just levied at Doug and Co.
Then again Brütal Legend proved that just because it’s a new IP from a cool guy, doesn’t mean it will be good. The T-shirt for a $200 donation ARMIKROG will still look cool even if the game sucks. And think of all the hipster gamer cred your name in the credits will bring.