Simon the Sorcerer Origins

Simon the Sorcerer Origins is a great experience if you want to enjoy a wonderful story. There are lots of gags in there, and they don’t shy away from adding some creative gameplay ideas. Sure, there are small frustrations, like stiff animations at times or bad inventory management, but that didn’t push me away from the game. If anything, it’s a solid game that certainly earns its spot as one of the best adventure games in the past few years.

This point and click adventure ticks all the boxes to feel like a retro classic. Stunning presentation, great design, and really good acting.

Funny, quirky, creative, and brilliantly staged—a true Simon adventure through and through.

Simon the Sorcerer Origins is a finely crafted and gorgeous throwback to the heyday of the genre. It is witty, fun, and wholesome in a way that should delight gamers of all ages. I loved it more than I could have anticipated.

Overall, we decided to give Simon The Sorcerer Origins a high score because we genuinely enjoyed it — but rarely has it felt more important to properly contextualize what that number actually represents. We wanted to reward it as a clear signal to fans of LucasArts-style adventures and similar titles that this game was made specifically for them. It stays true to that vision to the point of making design choices that might not sit well with players who aren’t very familiar with the point-and-click genre. But Smallthing Studios clearly defined its audience, leaving no room for misunderstanding, and stripped away all the elements alien to the genre that other studios have added over the years in an attempt to attract people who barely know what an adventure game even is. It’s a radical choice, of course, and some may even see it as a flaw — fair enough. So make your own judgment, but hopefully our reasoning here is clear enough.

Simon the Sorcerer Origins is an excellent debut for the team at Smallthing Studio. On the one hand, it revives the mechanics of the old-school graphic adventures that inspired it, with just a few adjustments: a bold move in an era when attention spans are a thing of the past. On the other hand, it renews the genre with hand-crafted aesthetics and a few small concessions to the modern player. The result is a fresh game that recalls the past without getting lost in nostalgia. Graphic adventures are still alive and well.

I’ve quite happily played through and enjoyed Simon the Sorcerer: Origins, and for fans of the series, this is genuinely a pretty great return for this 90’s adventure game anti-hero. In many ways, it feels made by a group of fans that loved these classic games, and as such, is made with a fair amount of care and passion. I hope they get to make another one.

Simon the Sorcerer Origins is a nostalgic adventure set in a vibrant fantasy world filled with jokes. Visually, the game ranges from “acceptable” to “excellent”.