On the surface, the fifth Space Quest installment appears to be nothing more than a parody of viral scenes from cinematic science fiction culture. But this time, the obligatory gags expected by the audience are just ingredients for describing the development of the main character Roger Wilco, who never overcame the status of a clumsy moron in the previous adventures.
In his role as a space garbageman, the player embarks on a journey from a pimply teenager at cadet school, through a long series of tests and trials, to the final kind of man Wilco always wanted to be: a hero of the galaxy.
It is time again: Equipped with the classic fedora and the good old whip in your hand, you are standing in front of an ancient temple to figure out one of mankind's best kept secrets. If you are now thinking about a well-known leather jacket salesman, I am afraid that you are mistaken: We are not talking about the escapades of Indiana Jones, but about Tex Bonaventure on the search for the water of life.
Though honestly, if the licence could have been financed, we certainly would have met Indiana Jones here. 'Tex Bonaventure', on the other hand, is a wordplay on 'Text Adventure', of course, which already gives us an idea of what's to come.
1866. Fenimore Fillmore, lone young gunman stumbles across the mystery of the 3 Skulls of the Toltecs – artefacts which some bad guys are willing to kill for. 1996. The adventure game genre still sees a large amount of new releases, of which the fictionalized accounts of Fenimore are one. 2020. Years have passed since the game's release and I'm playing it again, with the advantage of hindsight wisdom.
One thing we've learned, of course, is that it was already the beginning of the end for the genre of graphic adventures. 3 Skulls wasn't a big success even at the time, but it somehow managed to stay semi-known over time. Today, it can be seen as a poster case for how such games were in the mid-1990s. For better and worse.