Our collective video game memory is a strange thing. Some games from decades past are committed to The Pantheon where they will be talked about and remembered for all time. Others, meanwhile, can be some of the biggest releases of their time, only to disappear and never be heard from again.
Little big adventure is one of those games. Released in 1994, it was a huge deal! It graced magazine covers, received rave reviews, and was notable not only for its incredible isometric visuals, but also for its unique art style and puzzle design. It sold a ton of copies around the world, but one market where it didn’t do well was the US. Which, given the America-centric nature of game writing and criticism, mostly explains the game’s omission from The Pantheon.
It’s great to hear, then, that a small team – currently working on attempts to reboot the franchise – have decided to make both the original game and its sequel entirely in Unreal Engine 5. They’re not doing it purely out of the goodness of their hearts , However; they do it to generate enough interest in the series to help a publisher agree to pay for development on their reboot project.
Everyone wins! We get remakes of two of the greatest adventure games ever made, and if they do well, we get a new Little Big Adventure game to go along with it.
Every game will benefit from one graphic and technical inspection with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. This means we will faithfully rebuild both games from scratch. To improve the experience, we will also rework Twinsen’s controls and add new features. The ability to use the original game controls will of course remain available to those who wish to play as in the original games. This work will also give rise to remaster the original music by composer Philippe Vacheyto guarantee you the best possible experience.
The first game will have a demo released during the next Steam Neo Fest (June 19-26), with the team’s announcement blog suggesting that both games will be out in 2024, the series’ 30th anniversary.
There is more on the project’s official site.