The year was 1991. Yours truly was trying (unsuccessfully) to navigate the first year of university. Yours truly was discovering a new, mysterious freedom that had eluded him for all of his 17 years to date.
That’s right… Finally, I was in control of my own destiny when it came to gaming!
Around the same time, a game that should have got more kudos that what it did at the time – for being a groundbreaking, jaw dropping title – came out. Another World was one of those games that, at the time, had every gamer worth their chops frothing with anticipation.
It’s probably hard to believe right now, but this was groundbreaking at the time, and this was just the opening cut scene.
The game puts you in the shoes of a young scientist called Lester, who botches an experiment and finds himself literally fighting for his life on an alien planet.
At the time, it was a cool, unique story that we hadn’t really seen in gaming at that point. Seemingly, for one of the first times in gaming history, we had a game that told a story, and told it well.
Just the cinematic alone took you away, away from the TAC 2 joystick and analog TV screen and into this strange world… a bizarre platformer that (again, at the time) looked beautiful, looked different and looked “out of this world”.
Coincidently, this is what the game was called in North America.
Alas, the game got a few refreshes along the way… Imagine my delight when the game was re-released as a game for the iPhone… Sadly, it didn’t play quite the same way without a joystick, and was actually a little frustrating to play as a result.
Turns out though, even second time around, this kind of game proved something I already knew about myself as a gamer. I generally don’t have patience for these platformers that require a little bit of grey matter, and second time around, I still failed to complete it.
However, all is not lost when Youtube and a fellow gaming nerd come to the rescue. Finally, I get to see how Lester’s story should have panned out.
At the time, it averaged around 88% with most of the respectable reviewing rags… I reckon, if they had their time again, they probably would have given it more.
It’s available on Steam and after reading this, why wouldn’t you? – click here
Written by: @dantheinternut
