After Frédérick Raynal created the first survival horror game, he left Infogrames to open Adeline Software International. He and his new team applied what he learned from Alone in the Dark to craft a family-friendly take on the adventure formula. Little Big Adventure would go on to be a decent success in Europe but failed to penetrate the North American market.
There is a lot to like about Little Big Adventure. It has a charming art style and atmospheric prerendered backgrounds. The music is infectious, and the game is ambitious for attempting to have a massive world in 1994. By today’s standards, it would be a hassle to play due to the unintuitive controls and hard limitations of the game design of the era.
After a sequel in 1997 and the popularity of remakes and remasters in recent days, the time for Little Big Adventure‘s return has come. There is a lot of room for improvement and ways to make it better than ever. Unfortunately, the new designers missed the opportunity. How could it go wrong? Find out in our Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest review!
Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest
Developer: [2.21]
Publisher: Microids, [2.21]
Platforms: Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: November 14, 2024
Price: $29.99
The original Little Big Adventure was a classic French fantasy story about Twinsen, a little dude in a blue robe who saves the world from an evil scientist. The nefarious Dr. Funfrock already rules the world under a totalitarian regime, with cyborg elephants and Nazi-like furry clones acting as his muscle.
Twinsen embarks on a journey to collect magical artifacts, solve mysterious puzzles, and stick it to that fiend, Dr. Funfrock, who will win the “most embarrassing name for a villain award”. The original game connected with gamers due to its sprawling convincing world which was unparalleled in the early 90s.
Like many pioneering adventure games, it didn’t follow a rule book and many of its systems can be frustrating, even by 1994 standards. Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest is a remake that can address some of its design choices that would make it more approachable and enjoyable. Regretfully, for every step forward, it takes several stumbles backward.
For the most part, Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest‘s story is the same as in 1994. There is a new prologue and a couple of minor additions, but this is the same story with new annoying voice acting. If you played the original, you’ll know what to expect. What you won’t expect is that Twinsen somehow controls worse than he did in the 90s.
The original game had prerendered backgrounds and tank controls ala Resident Evil. Twinsen’s Quest has normal relative movement which should be easier to pick up and play, but Twinsen moves unbearably heavy and has unwieldy turning. It feels like maybe they originally had tank controls implemented but wimped out at the last second and half-assed a new control scheme.
The bouncy ball combat was tricky in the original and was remade worse. The targeting system gets stuck and Twinsen is better off running up to foes and stun locking them to death by spamming the kick… so long as they don’t stun lock him first. Enemies will get stuck on objects and give up. Everything feels floaty and delayed, like being trapped in a puke dream where you can’t stop sweating.
The overall playability in Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest is terrible. The only saving grace is that you won’t have to constantly pause the game to switch modes like in the original. Going into stealth and jumping modes is made seamless, but this was to be expected since most games today have intuitive control schemes.
Another improvement from the original is the seamlessness of the environments. In the original, every screen was static and the view did not pan over to the next area. Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest has nicely rendered environments with an overhead POV that tracks Twinsen as he clumsily explores the world.
Reimagining the world as one seamless 3D environment is the most obvious direction for the remake. It’s hard to be impressed by something that is the standard, but it’s one of the few things that works as intended.
The presentation is often jarring. Scenes will suddenly begin with no transition or proper closure. Ideas are introduced with no setup or proper explanation. Some of these choices were in the original too, but this was the chance to improve upon what was there.
The new art style sometimes looks nice and at worst looks amateurish. Some 3D models look out of place and the emphasis on angular expressionistic designs goes against the round bubbliness of the original style. Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest isn’t an ugly game, but it does not look faithful to the original either.
The new cutscenes are also hit-or-miss. The camera is dynamic and the lighting is more dramatic. Characters are a bit more expressive too. There are sudden bouts of incompetence when the editing makes no sense and often breaks the 180 rule, making scenes confusing. The cutscenes are best when they are copying the scenes from the original.
Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest is borderline unplayable. The kinesthetics are dreadfully unpleasant and the rough state of the game can lead to some nasty bugs. The few areas of improvement are not worth enduring this sluggish mess. Gamers are better off playing the original.
Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a code provided by Microids. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest is now available for PC (via Steam), Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.