The undead adventure genre

Going through my early-nineties games magazines remniscing over the great classics, I also noticed an inordate amount of games I could no longer remember. Anyone: Noctropolis, Superhero League of Hoboken, Universe, Nippon Safes? No? How about Big Red Adventure, Curse of Enchantia, Darkseed, Red Hell, Braindead 13, Bazooka Sue, Lost in Time, Orion Burger or Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth? Seeing a pattern yet? Anyone remember Plumbers Don't Wear Ties? Dog Eat Dog? How about 9, produced by (though not starring) none other than Robert DeNiro?

There's always been lots of forgettable adventure games being produced. The current state of the genre, though, is that people are pouncing on any adventure title and asking wether it will revitalize the dying genre before it's too late. And of course none of them deliver. There really is a distinct lack of brilliance, though; titles like Still Life are evolutionary rather than revolutionary in content as well as form.

In short, the adventure is moving about plenty, but it's a shambling gait that doesn't exhibit any real soul. The modern adventure genre is a herd of zombies.

Someone, fetch my root beer spritzer.