I.M. Meen (1995)
Story:I.M. Meen is a 1995 educational video game that runs on DOS, designed to teach grammar to children. In this game, the player must walk around a labyrinth, rescuing children and defeating monsters. The educational aspect of the game comes in the form of "scrolls", writings of I.M. Meen in which the player must correct the grammatical mistakes in order to rescue the children.Show more
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This is now infamous for being used in horrible "Youtube Poop" videos. It uses the same kind of animation that the CDI Legend of Zelda games had, which people love to mock, but I genuinely adore. I was in a Toys R Us with my mom when we saw this game being highlighted on a display that would show off a trailer. We both were enchanted by its presentation, and picked it up immediately. Of course, my mom also liked that this would be educational, although I was already very good with my spelling & grammar.
Thankfully, the educational content makes up a very small part of the actual game. It would be a challenge you need to pass through in order to make progress. The difference in tone is certainly jarring, but to be quite honest, the grammar tests actually make up what I love most about it today. They were all original documents connected to the lore of this world. Often, it would be notes passed on between characters in the villain organization, and offer helpful hints for the mazes you'd go through. Otherwise, it would also have a bunch of fictional stories where the villain would blatantly insert himself as a Mary Sue. Whatever form it took, the writing was the height of campiness, and I love it for that. Reading those stories with his self-inserts make me think of the shorts on the Colbert Report with Tek Jansen. To this day, my mother still has the Gnorris Notes pad at her computer.
Admittedly, this game is *horrible* to play, but I was able to get used to it. Once I managed to get past the awful UI, I started having a genuinely fun time with the combat and exploration. Of course, most people would just enjoy riffing on it for the legacy of its animation, which is still well worth preserving.