Little Big Adventure 2

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Little Big Adventure 2
Developer(s) Adeline Software International
Publisher(s)
Engine Custom
Platform(s) PC
Release date
Genre(s) Action-adventure game
Mode(s) Single player
Media CD

Little Big Adventure 2 (LBA2) is a computer game made by the core team who created the first Alone in the Dark. It was first released on May 25, 1997, and that very first version is currently one of the rarest two versions of the game, since it was the Original European version of the game.

It was later re-released by Activision in June 1997 in both the United States, and in Brazil, under the name Twinsen's Odyssey. In July 1997, both Electronic Arts and Virgin Interactive Software re-released LBA2 - Virgin Interactive Software doing so under the name of "Twinsen's Odyssey". LBA2 sold over 600,000 copies worldwide.

The game is a sequel to Little Big Adventure (also known as Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure). LBA2 was also the third game created under the label of Adeline Software International. The game features three dimensional environments and full motion video, and all of its music is in CD Audio quality (albeit the European version only has a single track stored as an actual CD Audio file, the rest being .WAV files in the MUSIC\ sub-folder of the LBA2 folder on the disc), unlike its predecessor, LBA, of which most of the music was MIDI (although the CD version did have some CD Audio tracks as well).

In early previews - mostly of the 1996 pre-release version - there were some drastic differences from the final version. Examples include the ferry being in the style of the ferry in the original Little Big Adventure, the woodbridge on Citadel Island being intact rather than broken, Emerald Moon having a Twinsunian blue sky, and differences in the characters (mostly Zeelichians) - most notably the Franco guards seen on Twinsun after the invasion.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The game's introduction is as follows:

“ Hello, I'm Twinsen, the hero of this adventure. Can you see me up on the box up there with my girlfriend Zoé? That's my trusty friend Dino-Fly on the right, and that's a portrait of Sendell, our benevolent goddess, who breathes life into everything. Thanks to the medallion, and the magical powers she gave me, I was able to save our beautiful planet Twinsun. I had to investigate all the islands to save Zoé, and prevent our world from being destroyed. The terrible dictator FunFrock had the entire planet in his grip - until I came along. [pause] Yep, I'm proud to say, Zoé and I are expecting good news. We'll soon be hearing the pitter-pat of tiny feet, so we got to hurry up and get everything ready. Our world lives in peace nowadays, everything's calm, and we all have our place in the sun. ”

After Twinsen defeated FunFrock at the end of Little Big Adventure, Twinsun was peaceful... until a sudden storm covers Citadel Island. The first task of Twinsen is to help Bersimon, the Weather Wizard, dissolve the clouds and end the storm. After the storm, alien creatures, who called themselves Esmers, land on the planet. They claim to be friendly, but it is clear that they have ulterior motives for visiting.

In the restaurant in Otringal Harbour, one of the stage performers resembles Gene Simmons from the band Kiss. The character even shows Gene's trademark tongue and face make-up. He is holding a black guitar-like instrument. When approached on stage he will tell you to get lost, whilst backstage he will complain about the audience being dull and much better in the old days.

Inside the palace, after some rooms you find Adeline's Time Commando's main character, he acts like a guard but moves like the commando. (This is reported to happen in the OEM version.)

[edit] The game

Little Big Adventure 2 has two viewing modes - for outdoor scenes a 3D perspective view is used, and for indoor scenes it uses a 3D isometric perspective (the game field is rotated 45 degrees). All characters and vehicles are 3D polygon-based objects, allowing for full rotation and movement abilities. The interior game field is divided in scenes (a small block of the game that is active). When the player exits a scene the game is saved automatically under a savegame called AUTOSAVE.LBA. However, unlike Little Big Adventure, it is possible to save the game at any point. After completion of certain tasks the player is presented with a full motion video sequence. All text in the game is spoken by the characters. The LBA world is considered extremely large and varied for games of its time. There are three planets to visit, with Twinsun and Zeelich containing their own islands, each with their own unique graphical style. Essentially every character in the game is interactive and will respond differently when Twinsen speaks to them.

Like its predecessor, LBA2 is real-time adventure. It combines several action game/arcade sequences and some elements from the role-playing game genre. The game's gameplay is partially free-roaming, allowing the player to travel around the islands once they have been "unlocked" by completing certain objectives; there are also many tasks which are optional or non-linear. Certain locations in the game are initially blocked from the player until they progress to a certain stage

Interactivity with the world is important in Little Big Adventure. Almost all characters can be talked to, and enemies are often performing tasks while the game world is active. The artificial intelligence in the game was particularly groundbreaking at the time, with enemies often running to alarms to alert other guards to the player's location, opposed to games like Doom released in the same timeframe where enemies can only chase and shoot at the player.

It is impossible to travel from one planet to another at the player's accord - travel between planets is a scripted storyline event. There are less areas to explore in the first planet Twinsun, as it was mostly covered in the first LBA. However, Zeelich has many areas to explore, both on the surface and undergas.

[edit] Gameplay

As with the original Little Big Adventure, the player controls Twinsen using the arrow keys. Twinsen also retains a similar set of four behaviors (see Behaviors and gameplay section of LBA article). During the game, new behavior modes are added to allow the player to quickly utilise new items that they may pick up. When the player carries the "Protopack" for example, the mode menu can be cycled vertically to reveal a mode which automatically activates the "Protopack".

Twinsen also has an inventory where he can store objects he finds. Every object has its own set place in the inventory rather than being automatically assigned.

It's possible to jump on top of every single building in the game. This is achieved through gaming glitches. Amongst the most interesting buildings to explore are The Moon Base and on top of The Palace.

It is possible that the characters in the game are slightly shorter than a regular Q-Tip. In the basement of the souvenir shop in Otringal, there is a Q-Tip and some other items such as a champagne cork, glue bottle and a padlock. Interacting with the Q-tip gives a short explanation that the 'mysterious junk' was found floating in space.

[edit] Weapons

Little Big Adventure 2 includes several additional weapons along with the two original Little Big Adventure weapons, the Magic Ball and the Emperor's Sword (previously dubbed the "Sabre" in LBA).

  • Magic Ball: The Magic Ball is a ball of energy that can be thrown by Twinsen. When Twinsen has a high level of magic, the Magic Ball can bounce off walls and other objects. As Twinsen's magic level decreases, however, the Magic Ball's bounce is reduced. The Magic Ball can be used to attack enemies or to activate switches. During both games the power of the ball is upgraded as the player completes certain tasks.
  • Emperor's Sword: The Emperor's Sword is found later in the game and functions the same way as the Sabre in the original Little Big Adventure; it is the only weapon that can defeat the Emperor's guards outside his palace. Its most powerful attack is in "Sporty" mode, where Twinsen backflips and then forward flips into a powerful attack. The most effective mode however, is the "Aggressive" mode, because of attack speed.
  • Laser Pistol: The Laser Pistol is given to Twinsen on Otringal by the Dissidents. It fires a powerful green beam across a long distance without dropping - unlike all other projectile weapons in the game. Its downside is that it takes a long time for Twinsen to aim and fire, rendering it useless in a close quarters combat situation. In addition, when a shot hits something, it breaks into potentially lethal flying projectiles, making it only suitable for long range attacks.
  • Wannie Glove: The Wannie Glove, found in the mine on the Island of Wannies, comes into use against certain projectile enemies, such as some of the creatures from the undergas. The player uses the glove to deflect its attacks and pitch them back, hopefully damaging it with its own shot.
  • Blowgun: The Blowgun is similar to Machine Guns that some enemies carry on Zeelich. It fires small green balls at a reasonable distance - but does little damage and is practically ineffective at killing enemies if they are returning fire. The Blowgun is first given to Twinsen in the School Of Magic on Desert Island when he completes the target test. When Twinsen goes to the Island of the Mosquibees and completes their test, the Mosquibees give Twinsen a 'Blowtron' which is more powerful and shoots at a longer distance.
  • Darts: The darts have little use in the game except a small minigame on Desert Island, where the player has to hit 2 ducks as they move across the screen. If the game is won, Twinsen is lifted up by balloons and dropped into a hole leading to the Temple Of Bu. (which could be accessed from the grass near the entrance, the fence can be jumped)
  • Lightning Spell: The Lightning Spell is received after the player completes the Weather Wizard's spell on Citadel Island. The Lightning Spell drains all of the player's magic supply and kills any enemy on screen at that time. It also features in the completion of an important task.
  • Protection Spell: The protection spell is found in a secret cave on the island across from the Hacienda in Desert island. It slowly drains your magic and protects you from all enemy attacks, but not drowning or falling.
  • Nitro-Meca-Penguin: This mechanical penguin will walk straight forward, and explode violently after 5 seconds. This behaviour differs from the first game, where the penguin would explode on impact. Furthermore, in LBA2 it's possible to carry at most 10 Nitro-Meca-Penguins at a time.

[edit] Enemies

There are several kinds of enemies in Little Big Adventure 2 varying from sentients to evil beasts, as well as aliens, robots, ghosts and others.

  • Tralü and his small rats: He is a large and hungry monster, that always wants to do something nasty for those, who live on Citadel Island. These usually attack belching with some sort of green slime.
  • Skeletons and ghosts: Both these two groups of the Dead are guardins of ancient places on Twinsun. Skeletons try to prevent Twinsen from acquiring the spell of defence as well as ghosts oppose him at the hall of the wizard's school.
  • Zeelich forces: these count many followers of the Emperor and the Dark Monk, including the sups (aliens with pistols), franco soldiers (sausage-like aliens with various weapons), wannie workers and some others.
  • Robots: several types of these can be met throughout the game. Usually these are two-leg bots, patrolling the streets of Otringal, but after the invasion they can also be seen on Twinsun as part of occupation forces.
  • Mercenaries: the Emperor and the Dark Monk feared Twinsen so much, that they hired at least two to hunt him down.
  • Wild beasts: snakes, spiders, bats, crabs, as well as fireflies, gas beasts, claw-fish dogs and some others.

Enemies differ from one location to another, taking different shapes and having various powers, each with its own unique role in a gameplay.

[edit] Music

In Little Big Adventure 2's European version, soundtrack consisted mainly of a single looping CD Audio track, which was simply a pop-like remix of the original game's title screen music. The remainder of the soundtrack is stored as .WAV files in the MUSIC\ sub-folder of the LBA2 folder, possibly to save space for textures, video and speech.

Twinsen's Odyssey (all versions), however, disposed of the big TADPCM*.WAV files, and stored those tracks as CD Audio tracks instead.

[edit] Versions

The following versions of Little Big Adventure 2 are known to exist:

Little Big Adventure 2 Versions
Known non-final versions
Version Date Description
Beta version Late December 1996 Released to some computer magazines back around Christmas 1996, and is quite different from the final version.
Release Candidate 1 April 18th, 1997 Released to some computer shops for testing, has some minor differences from the final game, and has the game stop, when you leave Emerald Moon for Zeelich - this could be either a glitch, or intended; it's not known yet.
Known final versions
Version Date Description
Demo version May 25th, 1997 Version of the above, with only three random scenes from the game, and was commonly found in the computer magazines of the period.
Original European version May 31st, 1997 Rare original release of the European version, not many copies exist, so it's very hard to find. It was most probably withdrawn due to some major internal bugs.
Floppy version May/June 1997 Rumored to not only exist, but also being very common, at least in Romania.
U.S. version June 14th, 1997 Release by Activision, only has the English language.
Brazilian version June 23rd, 1997 Release by Activision; like the U.S. version, but adds Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese texts, and possibly also fixes several bugs in the game, because its files date somewhere after the U.S. version.
European version July 6th, 1997 Release by Electronic Arts; has the English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian written languages, and the English, French, and German spoken dialogues.
Asian version July 1997 Release by Virgin Interactive Software; has the English texts and voices only.
Russian version Late 1997 The Russian re-release of the U.S. version, with the English texts and voices replaced with the Russian ones.
Japanese version December 1st, 1997 Published by Activision[1]; just like the Japanese version of the first Little Big Adventure, it only has the Japanese texts, and has the French voices swapped for the Japanese ones.

Although all four main versions (EA, Activision, Activision Brazil, and Virgin) have different languages available from setup (English/French/German/Spanish/Italian, English only and English/Spanish/Portuguese), the languages, which are not available for choice, are still present in the file TEXT.HQR, and can still be used by properly modifying the LBA2.CFG configuration file of the game.

[edit] External links

[edit] General resources

[edit] Fan sites and web directories

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ A Japanese gaming site, which mentiones this game