Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon Lonplay (Amiga)
202Developed and published by Coktel Vision in 1992.
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Gobliins 2 is a point-and-click adventure game released in 1992 for the Amiga and PC platforms and is a sequel to Gobliiins.
Following in the footsteps of it's predecessor, the game follows the adventures of the titular goblins, Fingus and Winkle, as they try to rescue the Prince Buffoon from the clutches of the evil demon, Amoniak.
The game is played out across a series of chapters, each broken into a number of distinct screens. Each screen holds many puzzles to be solved, often requiring the player to travel back and forth to collect items needed to solve puzzles in different areas.
The game makes extensive use of puzzles that require precise timing in order to solve. Quite often, the player must instruct Fingus or Winkle to interact with an object and then has to quickly switch control to the other goblin to perform another action. The seems to be an over-reliance of these puzzles in the latter stages of the game and they become increasingly fiddly to solve; trying to time the tongue-pull whilst walking through the skulls ears in the Throne Room scene is a classic example. It wouldn't be so bad if you could instantly retry the puzzle, but the game quite often forces the player to replay a series of actions in the event that he/she failed to get the precise timing right; this leads to a certain level of frustration, which is a shame as the game is otherwise an enjoyable adventure.
I'd also consider many of the puzzles to be quite surreal and solutions are not immediately forthcoming. The game encourages experimentation, which can result in humorous animations, but can also end in frustration if you unwittingly fail a puzzle as you were not sure what to do and clicked on something in the wrong order.
Wheras the original Gobliiins gave you control of three characters, Gobliins 2 reduces the number to two. Rather than the goblins having specific skills, the designers decided to give them different personalities. Fingus is a polite, well-mannered goblin, whereas Fingus is anarchic, potty-mouthed and mischievous. Whilst both goblins can interact with all the same items and characters in the game world, their personalities dictate the outcome of such actions. Working out which of the goblins to use in various situations becomes a major part of the game and was certainly innovative for the time as most games only required the player to control a single character.
One of the biggest problems that the original game had was the fact that making mistakes cost your goblins health; if the health bar was emptied then the game was over. The developers wisely chose to remove that particular mechanic this time around and the game is all the better for it.
The Gobliiins trilogy had an art style that was instantly recognisable and is a joy to behold. The animations (particularly the facial expressions) of Fingus and Winkle are brilliant and amusing in equal measure and each of the scenes is highly detailed.
Whilst nowhere as polished as Lucasarts adventure games, Gobliins 2 is certainly just as memorable. This was always my favourite game in trilogy and it also scores bonus points for being one of the few computer games that my mum actually enjoyed!
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