A Fork in the Tale

A Fork in the Tale is a full motion video (FMV) comedic adventure game developed by Any River Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts on February 26, 1997. The game draws a heavy influence from Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair games and features Bay Area actors Dale Morris, Fred Smith, Michael Ronin Orlando, Eric Carlson, Kaliopi Eleni, Jett, Pamela Herron and Jody Mortara among the fifty plus roles, as well as voice-overs by comedian Rob Schneider. Because of the large number of video sequences, the game was originally released on 5 CDs.

A Fork in the Tale
Developer(s)Any River Entertainment[1]
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts[1]
Designer(s)Rob Lay
Platform(s)Windows
Release
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot and gameplay

The protagonist finds himself in the land of Eseveron. The player must click on certain icons at specific times to proceed, all in an effort to figure out what is happening and how to escape.

Development

The game was in development for three and a half years with a budget of $2 million.[2]

Reception

PC Gamer US called A Fork in the Tale "a dismal flop, uniformly panned by critics and avoided by gamers, who bought less than 1,000 copies."[7]

A Next Generation critic complained about the small amount of interactivity and said Rob Schneider's vocal delivery is mediocre.[6] Charles Ardai of Computer Gaming World also criticized the limited interactivity and Schneider's performance, but focused most of his commentary on the repetitiveness of the video clips. He summarized, "At its best, it's reasonably funny; at its worst, the comedy is abysmal. But since the gameplay involves going through the same FMV scenes over and over and over, even the best comedy in the world couldn't stave off a creeping sense that you have been damned to some sort of Sisyphean penance."[3] Game Revolution thought the game was short and easy, yet fun.[4] In contrast, Rebecca Anderson of GameSpot considered the plot interesting but the gameplay frustratingly difficult, saying that the game demands the player to make decisions on a split second's notice, and sends the player back too far after failures.[5]

References
  1. "OGR: NewsNet". 1997-02-27. Archived from the original on 1997-02-27. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
  2. "E3 Expo/Digital Leisure acquires "A Fork in the Tale" rights for DVD-ROM and DVD-Video". digitalleisure.com. May 29, 1998. Archived from the original on December 2, 1998. Retrieved May 25, 2022.
  3. Ardai, Charles (June 1997). "Forking Awful". Computer Gaming World. No. 155. Ziff Davis. p. 104.
  4. "A Fork in the Tale Review". www.gamerevolution.com. June 5, 2004. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  5. Anderson, Rebecca (March 13, 1997). "A Fork in the Tale Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  6. "Finals: A Fork in the Tale". Next Generation. No. 30. Imagine Media. June 1997. p. 124.
  7. "TEN to Absorb AnyRiver?". PC Gamer Online. July 7, 1997. Archived from the original on 1997-10-12. Retrieved 2018-09-28.
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