| Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | 7th Level |
| Publisher | Panasonic Interactive Media |
| Directors | Terry Gilliam Terry Jones Steve Martino |
| Producer | Charles Otte |
| Writer | Bart Jennett |
| Platforms | Windows,Macintosh |
| Release | June 1996[1][2] |
| Genre | Adventure |
| Mode | Single-player |
Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail is anadventure game created by7th Level in 1996 forWindows. The game is based on the 1975 filmMonty Python and the Holy Grail and was the second of threeMonty Python games created by 7th Level.
The game's aesthetics are a mixture of photo realistic rendering and the comic style ofTerry Gilliam. The objective is to move through the world and collect a series of objects in order to cross the bridge of death. The game also contains a series of sketches and audio clips not present in the film, including an alternative reason for the minstrels' disappearance.
Many mini-games are available to play along the way, including aTetris clone using dead plague victims, aWhac-A-Mole game where a knight has to spank virgins in a bed (points are deducted for spanking the bare-cheeked women) and aSimon says game where the player has to remember the order in which four different coloured burning witches scream. The majority of the game is a point and click interface, where the player must also collect items to complete puzzles, and complete the missing planks on the bridge of death.
Global sales ofHoly Grail,Complete Waste of Time andDesktop Pythonizer surpassed 650,000 copies by November 1997, which accounted for revenues above $15 million at 7th Level.[6]
ANext Generation critic saidMonty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail "lacks any semblance of decent gameplay". He elaborated that since there is no indicator of where the hot spots are, the gameplay consists of little more than blindly clicking everywhere on the screen to see what happens. Despite this, he said that enthusiasts of the film would probably still enjoy the game due to the previously unseen video clips included on it.[4]
Pyramid magazine reviewedMonty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail and stated that "It is proudly proclaimed on the box as the 'Best CD-ROM Game of 932 A.D.,' butMonty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail is deserving of much more than that bit of false modesty. This is the funniest computer game I've ever played, period."[7]
MacUser namedQuest for the Holy Grail one of 1996's top 50 CD-ROMs,[5] whileInside Mac Games declared it the year's best comedy game. The latter publication's editors wrote, "Non-Python fans will probably wonder what the big deal is, but even casual followers will be rolling on the floor."[8] The game was a finalist forComputer Gaming World's 1996 "Classic/Puzzle Game of the Year" award,[9] which ultimately went toBaku Baku Animal. However, it won the category's Reader's Choice award that year.[10]
