King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!

The Good
The graphics are dazzling, with a revolutionary sound card and easy-to-use point and click interface. Graham searches for his family, using cleverness rather than fighting to overcome his enemies. This game is great for kids and adults and I've seen whole families work together to solve it. This game isn't dated by lousy graphics, or anything else inferior for that matter

The Bad
The gameplot is incredibly inflexible; there's only one, or possibly two solutions to each problem, without even much flexibility in the order of solving problems. It's rather frustrating not to be able to do something that would work in real life, or be able to tell characters whatever you want, as you can in Ultima. Also, the maze is a pain to navigate, and the desert can take a while to map.

The Bottom Line
A wonderful game for any age. Everyone should try one of the King's Quests, preferably KQ5 or KQ6. They teach kids how to solve problems through logic rather than violence and that good deeds are always rewarded, as the hero travels through a magical, fairytale world. They show adults that even middle-aged, completely settled kings can still go out and save the world.

The Good
This was the first KQ game where you don't have aching hands from typing monotonous commands all day. Now you can just kick back and click your way through the game! That was definitely a nice addition to the series.

And most of all...... The first KQ offered in 256 color VGA!! Obviously the EGA and VGA versions look like they came from separate worlds and one would pity the person who had to play it with only 16 colors (like I did). The game was a bar-setter for the rest of the Sierra series and other game companies as well. At the time, it felt as though I was playing a cartoon... Much improved music and sound effects were added to the newest of the series which brought to life all the cartoonish environments and characters.

It was also cool how your friend, Cedric the Owl, flew around with you the whole time helping you... it made it feel as though you weren't alone on this quest and you had a little traveling buddy with ya... definitely added enjoyment to the atmosphere.

A groundbreaking classic PC adventure game with TIMELESS written all over it.

The Bad
A horrible attempt was made to transfer this game to video game consoles and failed miserably due to the fact they chose to transfer it to NES which was 8 bit. It looked and played worse than the EGA version on PC and ruined the idea of a Sierra 3D Animated Adventure Game in the eyes of many console gamers.... The PC version of the game was another flawless and classic adventure game from Sierra.

The Bottom Line
Another classic from Roberta Williams with an easy to use interface and gorgeous sound and graphic capabilities. A must play for the fans of Sierra adventure games....

The Good
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (1990) was a fabulous entry into the already groundbreaking point n' click graphic adventuring franchise. Not only did it feature a long and detailed fantasy themed quest, with plenty of new puzzles, personalities and locations, but it also dazzled us with incredible graphics and sound, which had not been seen before on a personal computer.

The NES version of King's Quest V (1992) offer most of the elements that made the computer game successful; i.e. the same fantasy themed locations, items, puzzles, personalities, etc.

It was rare for a graphic adventure computer games to make the jump onto a home console system and it is nice to be able to play a classic adventure game, without having to master DOS or own an upscale (circa 1990) personal computer.

The Bad
The 8-bit NES simply could not recreate the same high quality animation, graphics, music and sound effects created on the personal computer. What was groundbreaking for the computer, was simply not possible for the NES.

For the NES, the game's animation and graphics are all very impressive, although some items are difficult to see and the quality of background and character detail does very greatly. Yet, it is nowhere near the same experience as playing King's Quest V on the computer.

The music and sound effects are a bit of a disappointment; both in comparison to the computer and even the abilities of the 8-bit Nintendo. When they do exist, the music and sound effects are generally best left on mute.

While the later PC CD-ROM edition of King's Quest added voice talents to read the script, such a feature was simply not possible on the Nintendo, which means that you need to be ready to read lots and lots of on-screen text and [to save your progress] write down very long passwords.

Reading the instruction manual will be a requirement because there is no mouse option. You will need to learn how to cycle between the various icon commands and then use the keypad to move the on-screen arrow to the item or person in question.

The Bottom Line
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (1992) offers a long and, generally, enjoyable fantasy-themed, point n' click, graphic adventure game for the 8-bit NES. The original storyline is intact, along with the original computer game's characters, locations, puzzles and item inventory.

Gamers who played the game on the personal computer when it originally came out or even the re-release on CD-ROM, may be unable to get past the hardware limitations of the 8-bit Nintendo.

However, not many point 'n click, graphic adventure games were made for the 8-bit Nintendo and this is certainly an ambition game. Fans of the adventuring gaming genre, who can look past the hardware limitations, should give this game a try.