Admittedly, I haven’t played MM further than the first few minutes, I like old adventure games (esp. LucasArts ones), but just haven’t bothered with this one.
I suspect the garage puzzle probably has some hint, like “it’s too heavy/I’m not strong enough” when attempting to open it, so the player atleast can figure out that strength training is a thing. Still a bit of a stretch, as it’s cartoon logic to actually become stronger after one workout - but… it is a cartoony comedy game.
The envelope thing sounds like one of those “needs a crystal ball” -things that many of the games of the era unfortunately had. I don’t think people even at the time appreciated the “dead man walking” -design. Must be fun for the softlock to become apparent hours or days later. It’s just a dick move design-wise.
On the other hand, should a game be designed to allow you to do all the things in one playthrough? Personally, I like when a game gives you different paths and reasons to replay it.
There are others way to achieve those end goals, though. Mutually exclusive paths are usually going to feel much better than some unforeseeable bullshit
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Admittedly, I haven’t played MM further than the first few minutes, I like old adventure games (esp. LucasArts ones), but just haven’t bothered with this one.
I suspect the garage puzzle probably has some hint, like “it’s too heavy/I’m not strong enough” when attempting to open it, so the player atleast can figure out that strength training is a thing. Still a bit of a stretch, as it’s cartoon logic to actually become stronger after one workout - but… it is a cartoony comedy game.
The envelope thing sounds like one of those “needs a crystal ball” -things that many of the games of the era unfortunately had. I don’t think people even at the time appreciated the “dead man walking” -design. Must be fun for the softlock to become apparent hours or days later. It’s just a dick move design-wise.
Crystal ball drsign was usually intentional, to make the game last longer
Most of game design then was finding creative ways to stretch their resources to make a game last longer
No doubt about it. Still feels bad to step on those landmines. :P
On the other hand, should a game be designed to allow you to do all the things in one playthrough? Personally, I like when a game gives you different paths and reasons to replay it.
There are others way to achieve those end goals, though. Mutually exclusive paths are usually going to feel much better than some unforeseeable bullshit
doing everything in one playthrough is not the same as softlocking the game. Exclude one path, sure. Softlock? Bullshit.