My Top 15 Games:

12: King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

I love this game. I love the sense of whimsy, the cleverness of the tasks you need to complete, the love story, the worlds you get to visit. I bought the entire King’s Quest collection on Steam just to have this game again. Don’t get me wrong… I enjoy the other games, especially V and the more cartoonish VII, but VI seems like the perfect combination of all the serious and humorous elements.

At the time, I was blown away by some of the visuals. The image of Death chained to his throne was beautiful and powerful. The scene of Cassima trapped in her tower was heartbreaking, looking out with her pet nightingale as her only way to communicate with the outside world.

I remember the version of the game we had was one of the re-releases on CD instead of floppy disks, and you could put the CD into a regular old boombox to listen to the theme song, “Girl in the Tower”. It’s cheesy as all get out, but I kind of love it anyway. It makes me smile with fond memories.

Part of what made the game so much fun was that it was before the age of GameFAQs. I had to experiment and puzzle out all the solutions on my own, which made beating the game really feel like an achievement (especially getting a “good” ending). Nowadays, I’m so lazy that I’ll look up a walkthrough in a heartbeat if I get stuck in a game. (Hello Fade mission from Dragon Age: Origins).