King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride (Sierra On-Line, 1994)

King's Quest VII was the first title in the King's Quest series to be shipped only on CD. This made a good deal of sense given the extensive use of graphics and voice. But, even with hundreds of megabytes available, the resulting "game" is one of the easiest, shallowest, and most pointless titles in Sierra's extensive catalog. King's Quest VII was, at least in its initial Windows 3.1-only release, almost impossible to play due to extremely slowness (even on fast machines for the day) and almost constant disc access. Technical issues aside, the game threw away most of what made the other titles in the series bearable or even enjoyable, turning the game into a poorly thought-out cartoon completely lacking in coherent plot or even mildly interesting characterizations. The final nail in the coffin was the horrid new interface, reducing the normal Sierra suite of icons down to only one, effectively eliminating the exploration and experimentation that made previous games in the series fun. King's Quest VII is a truly terrible game, and should actively be avoided by anyone who remembers how good the King's Quest series, and adventure gaming in general, used to be.

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