Dragonsphere

(Mindscape, 1994)

One of the last of the best graphic adventures of the mid-1990's, this fantasy game was full of surprises! It involved a kingdom threatened by a wizard so powerful, their only defense was to encase him in a mystic bubble. A small orb, the Dragonsphere, shows the rulers of this land how the shield is holding...and now, the orb has begun to crack! You are the princely heir, who must traverse each of your kingdom's lands, for items needed to defeat this evil. While this first part of the story seems like it will lead to a short game, the "final battle" leads to a never-saw-it-coming plot twist, which shows the game isn't even half over! How often is it that an adventure does this; a plot development that expands the game, instead of shortening it? It's ingenuity in game design like this that puts this title squarely into Techtite's choices of Top 50 Multimedia Classics; a great game whose only flaw, unfortunately, was a pitifully minor ad campaign, so few ever played it. What a shame!