1996 PC video game
Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion is a 1996 children's first-person puzzle video game developed and published by LucasArts. Released for Windows and Macintosh, the game follows an oversized, anthropomorphic snail named Mortimer, who seeks to save a fantasy world's animal population. Players pilot Mortimer - whose shell can transform into an aircraft or submarine - through a 3D world, while solving riddles and learning simple biology. The game was shown at the May 1995 Electronic Entertainment Expo, as an attempt by LucasArts to reach a younger demographic. The game uses the "" engine. The game was also displayed at E3 1996; at the show, a writer for "Computer Games Strategy Plus" remarked that it was "very hard to sneer at the pure and lustrous quality of this kiddie title".
Gameplay.
Having chosen a player-character ('Sid' or 'Sally'), the player assumes a first-person control (except during cinematic sequences) to guide Mortimer through four ecosystems (savannah, taiga, Polar Ice Cap, and desert). During travel, the player uses its cursor to revive individual animals native to the habitat, earlier identified as changed into stone figures of themselves by antagonist 'Lodius'. Upon encounter with lesser antagonists (usually cyborg-like figures employing sodium chloride against Mortimer), the cursor becomes a weapon to repel these. At the end of each level, the player encounters an anthropomorphic sentinel permitting access to the next in reward for answering a riddle, whereof the answer is always the name of a species revived by the player. After the fourth level ('desert'), the game depicts Lodius' fortress, where the player-character itself must travel a series of mazes unaccompanied by Mortimer. Having overcome the maze and answered a final riddle (whereto the answer may be Lodius; Mortimer; or their common mentor, Prof./Dr. Laslow), the player rejoins Mortimer, whereupon Lodius, attempting to petrify the player-character, changes himself into a statue, with which the protagonists return to the beginning.
Reception.
"Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion" was nominated for several game awards, including an Emmy.
Notes.
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