I love this game.
Unlike most gamers, I dislike games that are overly complex - hence I tend to get more enjoyment out of old games (which, as a bonus, tend to be cheaper). And although I do get a kick out of a little FPS action (Doom is an old favourite of mine), I tend to be more interested by games that have a little more to them than just blowing away demons. It means that most of my old favourites are puzzle solving games, particularly "adventure" games like the old LucasArts classics - including the Monkey Island games, Sam and Max and Day of the Tentacle.
Malcolm's Revenge is one of those games. Although it's old, the graphics are attractive and the controls not overly complex - in other words, you don't have to waste the first half-hour of gameplay trying to figure out how the damned thing works. And it doesn't feel dated because the writing is at a very high standard - far surpassing the rather dreary fare of today's games. Too many modern games lack the thing I really love in a game: a sense of humour. Monkey Island was one game that had a fantastic sense of humour, but that style of game has sadly gone out of fashion today.
In Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm's Revenge, you play Malcolm the jester, villain of the previous games. But Malcolm
isn't so much a villain as a delightfully nasty and self-centred misanthrope. His vicious sense of humour and general lack of morals means that he's a very enjoyable character to play; his dialogue is snarky and sarcastic, and he happily mocks everyone and everything around him in order to provide most of the humour in the game. Like most adventure game protagonists he has no qualms about lying, cheating and stealing his way through the world, and with him as your hero you can enjoy pilfering other people's possessions and causing reckless property damage as you please - when you're not lying or tricking people, or being rude to them.
The aim of the game is to prove that Malcolm is innocent of the murder everyone claims he committed, but it's not as simple as it sounds. You'll go everywhere from a garbage heap, to an island of warring cats and dogs to the bottom of the ocean, all while trying to evade arrest by the "good guys", and other bizarre hazards - such as being eaten alive by fleas or getting turned into a mouse.
On the whole the game is entertaining and not too hard (especially if you use a walkthrough), and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good laugh and is nostalgic for the good old days of simple graphics and good writing.
