LGR - I. M. Meen - DOS PC Game Review
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Also, again if you paid attention to the writing instead of just taking a test, there's a TON of lore here. It's extremely campy, and it eventually grew on me. Reading those stories is kind of like the Tek Jansen shorts that would occur on the Colbert Report. The author, obviously Meen himself, inserts himself in all sorts of adventures as a total Mary Sue. It's so over the top, and I adore it! The antagonist is both narcissistic & vengeful, almost like a -force of nature- villain. Kind of like the motivation of Monsters Inc, he hates smart children because they don't scare easily. That's why he runs a library, so he can capture children actually interested in reading that he can't scare. This is definitely not a story to be taken seriously in any way.
Now yes, the interface is nothing special, but you can work around it. It's somewhat clunky to play. I eventually got used to it, and though it definitely doesn't play as smoothly as the Doom it hopes to replicate, it's still manageable. The fact that the controls are far from ideal means you actually have to play more tactically. You can't go guns blazing. Occasionally there's the large arena like the sewers level you showed, and I definitely had a lot of fun frantically running around the place dodging those projectiles. For the most part though, because you're usually in tight corridors without much maneuverability (and maybe you can attribute that to being a geeky, unathletic kid, the game teaches you patience. The focus is on exploration & careful navigation, as a maze should do.
However, I will concede that I am personally an extremely patient person. Most people could be forgiven for passing on this game due to the clunky controls & -edutainmenty- switch from action to a grammar test. I'm probably in a very small minority that can appreciate the challenge of lackluster controls and forgive the pace-changing of the actual education part to really enjoy the joke it always was. Having been able to appreciate it, I think there's actual potential to make something out of this with a remake or sequel if you improve the controls. The license would obviously be cheap as free to pick up. It wouldn't be too hard to reimagine it with better game design and keep the joke. In the end, I'll agree it's a really hard game to recommend. It's got a super-niche audience, especially now. I recognize this is the internet and I'll get flamed hard for this, but I still have a place in my heart for Gnorris the Gnome.
Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 9
Sarioya
I. M. Meen's sequel, Chill Manor, actually improves the inventory by giving you a Hexen-like bar at the bottom, as well as weapons with honest to God ammo. Losing all your stamina also leads to the game's antagonist, Ophelia Chill, erasing you from time completely rather than throwing you into a cell. Sadly, there's a lot less of the awesomely cheesy and weird animation. It was released some time in '96, so my guess is that the animation department was focusing more on Lord of the Clans at the time.
Also, I. M. Meen got a sequel. That in itself still blows my mind a bit.
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I. M. Meen's sequel, Chill Manor, actually improves the inventory by giving you a Hexen-like bar at the bottom, as well as weapons with honest to God ammo. Losing all your stamina also leads to the game's antagonist, Ophelia Chill, erasing you from time completely rather than throwing you into a cell. Sadly, there's a lot less of the awesomely cheesy and weird animation. It was released some time in '96, so my guess is that the animation department was focusing more on Lord of the Clans at the time.
Also, I. M. Meen got a sequel. That in itself still blows my mind a bit.
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Laughing
Their animation looks like it was drawn freehand without reference guidelines. what I mean by that is each cell is drawn with respect to the previous frame order going one at a time. unlike the traditional method where lead animators establish key frames first and then send them off to the intern or lesser animators on the team to fill in the tween motions. if you want a better example of this kind of animation look at the animated series Superjail!
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Their animation looks like it was drawn freehand without reference guidelines. what I mean by that is each cell is drawn with respect to the previous frame order going one at a time. unlike the traditional method where lead animators establish key frames first and then send them off to the intern or lesser animators on the team to fill in the tween motions. if you want a better example of this kind of animation look at the animated series Superjail!
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Dragon359
2: 45 I will say that you don't need to like books and learning to be a librarian. I used to volunteer behind the counter of the library in high school, and literally you just need to know where to find a general section of books and give it to the one checking it out, yet I only had a mild interest in reading books (though I did like the Redwall novels, and well. since when is high school about learning? XD
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2: 45 I will say that you don't need to like books and learning to be a librarian. I used to volunteer behind the counter of the library in high school, and literally you just need to know where to find a general section of books and give it to the one checking it out, yet I only had a mild interest in reading books (though I did like the Redwall novels, and well. since when is high school about learning? XD
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Uncle
-Something is off with their animated style-
No shading. All there images, in every game, had bright palettes and no shading so you would look at the images and you would know what they are supposed to be but your mind knows something is wrong (like uncanny valley) and its the lack of shadows, ANYWHERE. Even when he is stepping on the books his feet cast no shadows and its noticable on a subconcious level.
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-Something is off with their animated style-
No shading. All there images, in every game, had bright palettes and no shading so you would look at the images and you would know what they are supposed to be but your mind knows something is wrong (like uncanny valley) and its the lack of shadows, ANYWHERE. Even when he is stepping on the books his feet cast no shadows and its noticable on a subconcious level.
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Mike
I don't think it's quite as bad as you make it out to be -- no more boring than Wolf3d anyway. I think it mixes action games and education a lot better than most edutainment, which is usually just pretending to be some kind of game. Here it IS a game, and tries to introduce the educational aspect as part of the plot. I'd rather be playing this than Sonic's Schoolhouse, that's for sure.
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I don't think it's quite as bad as you make it out to be -- no more boring than Wolf3d anyway. I think it mixes action games and education a lot better than most edutainment, which is usually just pretending to be some kind of game. Here it IS a game, and tries to introduce the educational aspect as part of the plot. I'd rather be playing this than Sonic's Schoolhouse, that's for sure.
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CthulhuianBunny
Honestly, the cut scenes are quite the improvement on the Zelda CD-i games.
I. M. Meen himself isn't nearly as amorphous as Ganon, and he's not doing gross stuff like wiping his nose with his knee, or doing that ugly fish-eye lens mugging that Morshu does which makes him look like he should be singing some horrible rap about the items he has for sale.
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Honestly, the cut scenes are quite the improvement on the Zelda CD-i games.
I. M. Meen himself isn't nearly as amorphous as Ganon, and he's not doing gross stuff like wiping his nose with his knee, or doing that ugly fish-eye lens mugging that Morshu does which makes him look like he should be singing some horrible rap about the items he has for sale.
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blakegriplingph
I'd say you should do a review on the American Girl PC games while you're at it, particularly Premiere. I managed to do some minor hacking for it to run on modern systems, not to mention that it would no longer stream contents off the CD as all of the assets are now in the installation directory.
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I'd say you should do a review on the American Girl PC games while you're at it, particularly Premiere. I managed to do some minor hacking for it to run on modern systems, not to mention that it would no longer stream contents off the CD as all of the assets are now in the installation directory.
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Varis
the game seems like it would be a lot better if they cut out a majority of the levels, turning it from 36 to 9, equaling a full Wolf 3D episode or so. the game would've been shorter, but it'd be different with enough variety since the wall-textures and enemies would change between every level.
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the game seems like it would be a lot better if they cut out a majority of the levels, turning it from 36 to 9, equaling a full Wolf 3D episode or so. the game would've been shorter, but it'd be different with enough variety since the wall-textures and enemies would change between every level.
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revenile
I've heard people say that the engine used here is the same one from the awful -Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge- and given the UI looks like a complete reskin of the -Gronix Stone- from that game, I believe it. So the engine from that thing, and Animation Magic's -special touch. -
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I've heard people say that the engine used here is the same one from the awful -Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge- and given the UI looks like a complete reskin of the -Gronix Stone- from that game, I believe it. So the engine from that thing, and Animation Magic's -special touch. -
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