Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Classic

Title says it all. A HUGE nostalgiatrip for me.

Little Big Adventure is a charming adventure, marred by poor controls and terrible design choices. Unless you are the greatest gaming genius to have ever lived, expect to repeat minutes-long sections over and over again, thanks to the checkpoint + autosave system. To keep an actually good save file to go back to, you need to make a copy, and you can't load it unless you end your run first. The active save is automatically over-written whenever you enter a new screen (so you need to make a new copy if you switch saves), and this also includes whenever one of the several insta-capture enemies drag you back to jail (and if you walk too close to one of them because of a screen transition which doesn't make them visible at first, you can't avoid their tracking attack). The jail sections change from place to place, but even the faster one is slow and annoying. Micro managing the save system is almost as tedious as replaying the same sections several time, so I can't decide which one is the lesser of the two evils. The game seems to want you to avoid fights, but some of them are also required to progress, so good luck with figuring out which ones without trial and error (hint: you can't). The game uses a tank control + isometric view control system, and it's dreadful for the platforming the game expects you to do under pressure. Jumps are hard to aim, bullets hard to dodge, and you get hurt if you run against a wall. If you lose a life, you restart at the beginning of the screen, which might be several minutes of progress gone. Considering enemies and traps can stunlock you, and how big some areas are, this results in dramatic wastes of time with nothing interesting happening, except the anxiety of possibly missing a jump and having to redo the entire section. The story doesn't seem too great, but the world oozes personality to make up for it. Sadly, the game gives you awful tool to do what it asks you to accomplish. There are MORE flaws, but I ran out of characters.

This isometric 3D adventure has a few major flaws: a too linear plot, complex controls and the lack of a "save" option (the position is only recorded at fixed chekpoints). It's a pity because it could have easily become a classic, with great graphics, memorable characters, good voice acting and an original world building. Play it only if you want a hardcore experience.

I read on Wikipedia this game is available on gog.com. Stoked!. Bringing back memories. Thank you for this.

Now.only.waiting.for.second.part:Twinsen's.Odysse.where.you.can't.hurt.yoursefl.by.running.into.wall.:).YUPI!