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Heart of China(Dynamix, 1991)Back in the heyday of Sierra Online adventure gaming, several "sister" companies came along for the ride, distributed by Sierra. Among the best of these was a then-tiny company called Dynamix, which would be the "Touchstone" to Sierra's "Disney." In other words, it offered games that were for an older gamer, like Rise of the Dragon.
In most respects, this game was just one hair away from being as good as Rise of the Dragon, and ergo, just one hair away from being eligible for Techtite.com's infamous list of Top 50 Game Classics. For one thing it's too short, even by floppy disk adventure gaming standards. Second; at a time just shy of the jump to CD-ROM gaming, this really should've been updated to be a CD-ROM game in 1992, much like other Sierra or LucasArts adventures that made such a CD-ROM leap (Space Quest IV, King's Quest V, and even Dynamix's other 1991 game release, the animated Adventures of Willy Beamish). If anything; as a disk game this live-actor-comic-book adventure game was a treat. However, there's no denying how much more of a treat it could've been, had they made the jump to CD-ROM gaming like most people were. It was just too ahead of its time. One added piece of trivia: the heroine of the game (seen in the above photo, at top) became pregnant, right at the time the game was being designed. The game designers found her so perfect for the character she portrayed, that they didn't have the heart to re-cast. Look closely and you can see various TV-series style tricks they used to cover her real-life pregnancy, with some shots making her pregnancy even a little obvious, if you look closely enough. It's just one of many amusing pieces of game trivia.
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Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
Which
brings us to Heart of China; a different storyline (and
characters) from Rise of the Dragon, but with the same game engine,
puzzles, and overall style. This difference was in the superior graphics,
which used the same comic book style, and yet all characters were scanned
from actual actors, who posed for each scene a la a teenage graphic
novel. I know this sounds like old school gaming by modern gaming
standards, but consider: this was back in the days of floppy disk,
pre-CD-ROM games. To see such realistic graphics in a floppy disk game was
quite stunning. The fact it was a fun game, of course, made it even more
enjoyable.