*snort*

Yep, that's pretty bang-on. I remember running my invisible-ink revealing sharpie over the clues in the Space Quest (I) hint book more than a few times after nearly putting my fist through my Apple IIe's monitor in exasperation. Frackin' spider droid...

Even Grim Fandango (one of my favourite adventure games) had a sequence where you had to drive a forklift through a slot in an elevator to jam it. There were two plainly visible slots on screen so I spent 17 tries trying to get it through what was the closest one, I then gave up on that and tried dozens of other things, none of which worked. Finally consulted the walkthrough and discovered: Oh, it's the stupid OTHER slot you need to drive it in to.

Are adventure games dead? I am so enjoying Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on my DS!!

Ok, having read the article now, I can definitely concede that the writer has a point.

In fact I'm nearly done the Zelda game now, and I haven't resorted to checking online walkthroughs even once, and I've been actively noticing how well-designed the puzzles are. Like, I'll be stuck for a while and then I'll think of something that I could try that actually makes intuitive sense, and it'll work, and I'll be all "Yay!"

The contrast with the adventure games of my past is sharp, in this way.

So sharp.