Ballyhoo

(Infocom, 1985, Apple][e)

One of the last classic Text-only Adventures was a good sign of the genre's inevitable decline. The so-so story of a circus back lot, and the resulting puzzles, were not the best ever conceived by Infocom. While other 1985 offerings like A Mind Forever Voyaging were able to show fans that the text adventure genre was far from dead, games like this showed the genre was far from perfect. Meanwhile, other games were meeting or exceeding Infocom's former standards of quality, including Autoduel, Karateka, Sundog, and, yes, King's Quest. A great memory only to the most avid Infocom fan.

See also : "The Current State of Adventure Games (Part 1)" (editorial) "The Current State of Adventure Games (Part 2)" (editorial)

	Rating : Near Miss.
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