Na Hromnice o Gilbertovu mikro-adventuru více! Gratis adventurní povyražení na necelé tři hodiny, které je dějovým prologem Thimbleweed Parku, byť jde v praxi spíše o epilog. Divné? Nikoli pokud Thimbleweed Park máte dohraný. A to byste měli, jelikož jinak se stěží budete chytat; na tu je tu až příliš zásadních spoilerů a vtípků i odkazů pro znalé. On vůbec celý koncept "jakože Na Hromnice o den více" bez možnosti ukládání a záměrnou repetetivností, má opodstatnění. Ovšem opět, stěží do toho zabřednout, aniž bychom se vyhnuli spoilerům k "plnohodnotnému" staršímu bratříčkovi.

Čili se to dá doporučit pouze velmi specifickému okruhu hráčů, kteří mají dohrán Thimbleweed Park, mají ho stále v živé paměti, mají slabost pro echt pravověrné klikací adventury ze staré (a ještě starší) školy a kombinace přepáleného Gilbertova humoru s vypečenými narativními hrátky nepovažují za z nouze ctnost, ale naopak za jeden z hlavních důvodů, proč to vůbec hrát.

A nebo se to dá napsat i jinak... Pokud se vám tedy Thimbleweed Park líbil, tak tohle si chcete zahrát. Pokud jste doposud tu čest neměli, tak vám doporučím se dvakrát neupejpat a po této dnes již novodobé klasice žánru ihned sáhnout; pokud vám jsou adventury aspoň trochu po chuti. Nemusí vám ve výsledku sednout, ale to už je jiná. A ne, neuniká mi ironie toho, že kvůli zahrání si gratis jednohubky doporučuji nejprve pořídit a (za/do)hrát placený titul, na který má ta gratis jednohubka teoreticky lákat. Ovšem kdo zná Gilberta, tak mu to stěží přijde divné, nezvyklé či zarážející. Je to prostě starý čtverák; viz závěrečné titulky.

Whilst continuous replays of Thimbleweed Park kept the characters alive, adventure game developer Delores might have become a fan favorite, at least for me she is. So what's not to be excited about with Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure we actually got a spin-off dedicated to her?

Well, first things first-a-reno. This isn't presented as an actual game. It's clearly stated it was created as a test run for a new engine reusing graphics from the original Thimbleweed Park and omitting voice acting to fit the non-existent budget, because Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure was made available for free as a thank you to the fans.

It should be very hard to harshly criticize that, but just as the toxic internet would later bash the godlike Return to Monkey Island, before it was even released, to an extent Ron Gilbert would shut down communication, reactions to Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure in part have been astonishingly ignorant.

To me, that can only be caused by either not understanding or not even playing the original Thimbleweed Park, because if you just didn't like it already, which isn't forbidden of course, you wouldn't pick up an appendix that is presented in the form of a rehearsal, expecting it to be better, would you-aboo?

But actually, Terrible Toybox acts as a sign of quality even on that level. Traffic cones are blocking off huge parts of the world already known, most of the stores are closed and Delores returns to take a vacation job as a photographer for the local newspaper. That's odd, innit? Well it seems that this Chapter 10 to Thimbleweed Park is an alternate universe, where Chuck is still alive, Willie is still in business and the murder never happened. Or did it?

Whilst we explore the environment looking for our five photo motives to check from our list, we have the opportunity to recognize occasional glitches that clearly are intentional. Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure does not offer a save feature per se, but after around an hour of fiddling around with each and every opportunity, the game will end abruptly-who once we hand in our work. But the game doesn't end there.

In fact, it saves progress in general and with each reboot we start over with five new photo tasks that require solving another combination of the same puzzles and sometimes can be fulfilled with more than one motif.

If you beeping missed the files, after your sixth playthrough (which I count as one in my log, because only then the super long credits roll) you will meet Ransome for another hint how Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure seamlessly ties in with Thimbleweed Park. So with the spin-off totally confirming the principles of the original, the Upper World esoterically delivers jokes at the cost of the impatient and uninitiated.

Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure could be seen as repetitive for sure, but that way it totally caters to those who would repeatedly play Point'n'click adventures to squeeze out any secret and I'm not ashamed to admit that I wouldn't have found the poem without a hint and though I had the right hunch for the double vision I had to look up how to actually catch it on camera. I had a good four hours of fun in total anyway.

And that's an awesome thing about the present, even for a game rooted in the past. Not only were Terrible Toybox able to patch in additional features to the original Thimbleweed Park. Thanks to the internet they could also distribute more specks of dust to the fans who love to collect them and can't get enough of roaming the beautiful pixel art scenery of the game.

It was also a great sign of life that something is happening and I assume the new engine, that omits the old school verb menu, was leading to the fabulous new Monkey Island that's probably more than I couldn't have dreamt of, though I'm playing this in retrospect now and therefore was totally unprepared for when the Return to Monkey Island release was announced out of nowhere.

Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure is nothing but a love letter to the fans and on the shoestring budget it does the possibly best to give us just a little bit more of an awesome game on the way to the next big whoop and it sure ain't coincidence Return of Monkey Island also builds a little on the moniker of Thimblecon and the weird life of its own fandom can adapt.

If it wasn't for the solitary nostalgia with which some fans claim their interpretation of a franchise as irrefutable to a point they're even defending it against the ideas of its original creator, I'd say what a great time to be alive!

And yeah, haven't we got enough problems in reality? The pandemic, the war, the shortages and inflation? I'm not saying you've got to be as excited about Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure as I am. But if a creator is willing to distract us from the somber world we inhabit just a little for free, shouldn't we at least be kindly thankful?

Have your opinion, but Terrible Toybox has not yet disappointed me with any of their products. I think Ron Gilbert is still in his prime and I'm looking forward to any of his coming ideas, trusting his competence to create additional mature incarnations of his elaborated vision.