Hidden Gem of the Week: Simon the Sorcerer
If you call yourself a point-and-click adventure games fan you probably know this game by heart. And if not, you should definitely check out Simon the Sorcerer - our Hidden Gem of the Week.
While we're gathering your questions to Mike and Simon Woodroffe, the creators of Simon the Sorcerer, we've also asked Pete Davison to take a look at the crazy adventures of the teen wizard. When Pete finally stopped laughing, he has prepared another article which takes us on a journey full magic tricks and loads of humor. And just to make things even better, we're giving you a $1.00 discount for Simon the Sorcerer until Sunday, September 13 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
by Pete Davison
When is a SCUMM adventure game not a SCUMM adventure game? When it’s Simon the Sorcerer, Adventure Soft’s very British take on the point-and-click adventure genre. Look out, Harry Potter...
It’s impossible to look at the point-and-click adventures of the 1990s without mentioning LucasArts and their contribution to the genre. But it’s also impossible to deny that their productions were generally very America-centric. We had Sam and Max on their grand road trip across a somewhat twisted version of the States, Full Throttle taking place in a dystopian future that looked very much like Arizona, The Dig’s astronauts being sent by NASA... the list goes on.
So it’s a genuine pleasure to encounter Adventure Soft’s Simon the Sorcerer from 1993, one of the most unashamedly English games ever made. The titular Simon, voiced by Chris Barrie (most famous for his turn as holographic fop Arnold Rimmer in the BBC’s sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf) is by turns exceedingly arrogant, sarcastic and cynical, and he is all the better for it. Simon is just an English teenager who happens to be thrown into another dimension, so his responses to situations are typically English - often dripping with sarcasm or deadpan humor. The fact that he is often rude or insulting to people he meets - not entirely intentionally in many cases - means that he often has to go to unnecessary lengths to achieve his goals, going some distance to justify the arbitrary nature of many adventure game quests. He’s also not afraid to break the fourth wall, talking directly to the player on numerous occasions.
Simon’s interface will be immediately familiar to those who have ever played a LucasArts adventure, with the verb/inventory bar taking up the lower third of the screen and the remainder being taken up by the excellently-animated graphics. Simon himself has a great deal of visual as well as vocal character, and is an appealing character for the player to spend some time with. Puzzles are typical of mid-90s adventures, with many involving unlikely combinations of objects to produce bizarre and humorous results.
The influences on Simon the Sorcerer are very apparent. The strange mix of high fantasy, modern tropes and English humor in the world of his adventure clearly draws from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, but there are also elements of Monkey Island and Sierra’s King’s Quest series on display. The game has a great deal of character all of its own, and is entertaining enough to keep you playing right through until the end - plus GOG’s version here comes with a walkthrough to get you through any really tricky puzzles!
Simon the Sorcerer enjoyed critical and commercial success on its original release and went on to spawn three sequels, with a fourth to follow this year. Evidently youthful wizards are a compelling subject to many people, even now - I wonder why...?
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