Horké léto

Horké léto
Genres Adventure
Platforms PC
Year of inception 1998

Horké léto is a video game series, beginning with Horké léto a 1998 Czech adventure game developed by Czech studio Maxon and published by JRC Interactive. A sequel entitled Horké léto 2: Majer se vrací was developed by Centauri Production and published in 1999 by JRC Interactive. Žhavé léto 3 ½ rounds off the trilogy as a 2006 action/adventure/driving game developed by Centauri Production and CINEMAX,and published by Akella. Evil Days of Luckless John (Czech: Žhavé léto 3 ½; Russian: Сорвать Куш) is a 2006 Czech action adventure video game developed by Centauri Production and published by Playlogic. It is a spin-off to Horké léto. In Russia it was published by Akella.[1]

Production

Graphics were created by Marek Píša. Píša and Viktor Bocan participated in writing the screenplay. Sounds and music were the work of William Foldes. All characters are voiced by comedian Zdeněk Izer, a notable Czech impersonator, besides some female characters. The game has the same humorous style seen across Czech adventures such as Polda.[2] It was the first Czech game with professional dubbing.[3] The game's most famous quote comes in its opening scene: "I am an ordinary kid. Guys call me Rambo and girls [call me] asshole. Otherwise, I'm Majer. Honza Majer".[2] Like many other domestic video games of the era, Horke Leto was intended to appeal directly to Czech and Slovak players.[4] The game became a phenomenon upon its release and it immediately ranked among the best Czech adventures ever.[5] Petr Ticháček wrote for BonusWeb in 2003 that the fan base of the game had heavily diminished.[6]

According to Miroslav Mrňa, the idea of a sequel was brought up by JRC, then an exclusive distributor for the first game; the developers found this proposition interesting so pursued it. Developments began in late December 1998.[7] The team consisted of one scriptwriter, two programmers, three graphic artists and two musicians.[8] Mrna described the development and production process of the game in detail for iDNES.cz.[9] For Horke Leto 2, a watercolour-style design was made for the backgrounds, which were painted by hand then scanned into the computer. They were inspired by designs from painter Jan Štěpánek.[4] By mid-November, the game was expected to be released in time for the Christmas season.[10] The game would be released at the same time as Polda 2, and there was a friendly rivalry between the two titles.[4] Horke Leto 2 caught the attention of Bonusweb during development, who devoted a considerable amount of airtime to the game, including a series of news articles where they observed the game's development, to a preview and review, a tutorial, an interview with project lead Miroslav Mrňa, and finally a demo.[11] IDEA Games completed a conversion of the game for iOS and Android platforms in 2012; players should access a 30 minute episode before having to pay to complete the rest of the adventure.[12] The game was re-released with updated graphics.[13]

While developers from Centauri Production wanted to make a second sequel to the game, they were unable to obtain the rights to the name "Horke Leto" or the main character Honza, however the title was still designed as a spiritual sequel. Its original title was meant to be Raiders of the Lost Casino, but this was only used for international distribution purposes.[4] It was announced in May 2005 for release in the third quarter of that year.[14][15] The game's original title was "Raiders of the Lost Casino", a reference to the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark. the game's visual style is both cartoon-like and gritty.[1] The game was originally supposed to be released in the first few weeks of 2006.[16] This was later pushed to February of that year.[17] Akella demonstrated the game as a work-in-progress at E3 2006.[1] Akella planned an English release for the end of 2006.[1] A French localisation would later be made.[18]

Plot and gameplay

In Horké léto, the player takes control of teenager Honza Majer, who must rescue his family after they were captured by cannibals. In Horké léto 2, Honza Majer must retrieve the Purple Salamander artefact from the bandit One-Eye Dingo. Žhavé léto 3 ½ sees the player take control of Honza's grandfather, the hapless protagonist Johnny Majer, in the 1920s as he verses the Mafia in the age of the prohibition. Set in the gangster age of the 1930s, the player takes control of the handsome street rat Johnny who inherits a casino, only to discover that there is a plot to expropriate it.[1]

The first two games are point and click adventures controlled by the mouse. The third is mainly a point and click adventure with elements of stealth, fighting, driving, and shoot ‘em up.

Critical reception

Horké léto

Refresher.cz deemed it an average game, but noted that it didn't stop it from becoming a domestic hit.[5] Doupe.cz wrote the game is one of the best Czech adventures that every player should play.[19] Excalibur suggests that while the graphics and gameplay were nothing special, it was the dubbing into local languages that captured the imagination of Czecheslovakia.[4] PC Tuning deemed it one of the 10 best Czech games of all time.[20] Refresher thought it was the 20th best Czech title, praising its funny dialogues and first-class dubbing.[21]

Horké léto 2

Upon a preview, Bonusweb hoped that the game's humour would outweigh its average graphics and animations making it an above-average Czech title.[22] Bonusweb.cz compared the title to Polda 2, and ultimately decided that despite its limitations it was worth a play.[23]

Žhavé léto 3 ½

The game received mixed reviews from critics who enjoyed the game's artistic style and story but disliked its gameplay and interface. Hexus disliked the clunky interface, though praised the graphics.[24] Adventure Classic Gaming felt the game was a disappointing attempt to recapture the classic point and click adventures of the late 20th century.[25] Adventures Planet noted the strange mix of genres, that saw arcade-style gameplay be followed by Myst-style puzzles.[26] Bonusweb felt that despite the game's limitations, it was genuinely surprising.[27] Game Watcher deemed the title "pretty poor".[28] Game Slave thought John was a great idea that was poorly executed.[29] 4 Players felt a lot of the humour fell flat.[30] Jeux Video offered a funny and endearing experience.[31] Adventure Treff felt the game was more likely to induce annoyance than fun.[32] PC Guru thought the game was fun despite its graphics.[33] Bonusweb compared the game favorably to Polda 5.[34] Tiscalo felt the game's screenshots were reminiscent of Full Throttle.[35]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Kiai, Deirdra (July 14, 2006). "Evil Days of Luckless John preview". Adventure Gamers.
  2. 1 2 Raková, Michaela (2013). Historie a kontext produkce počítačových her žánru adventure v České republice (PDF). Prague: UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE. line feed character in |title= at position 41 (help)
  3. ↑ "FOTO Nejslavnější české hry. Od Izera po mafii". Aktuálně.cz (in Czech). 2014-02-13. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Nahodil, Martin (April 4, 2018). "Legendární české adventury – Horké léto". Excalibur.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  5. 1 2 Ondřej J. (April 16, 2015). "Vybrali jsme ty nejlepší české a slovenské hry. Shodneš se s naší top dvacítkou?". REFRESHER.sk (in Slovak).
  6. ↑ Čelár, Ľubomír (October 24, 2016). "Zabudnutý klenot videoherného priemyslu – česko-slovenské point&click adventúry". Gamesite.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  7. ↑ Ticháček, Petr (January 4, 2000). "Miroslav Mrňa o Horkém Létě 2". iDNES.cz. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  8. ↑ Polách, Zdeněk (April 12, 1999). "Mirek Mrňa o přípravě Horkého Léta 2". iDNES.cz. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  9. ↑ Mrňa, Miroslav (November 8, 1999). "Jak se vytvářelo Horké léto 2". iDNES.cz. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  10. ↑ Polách, Zdeněk (November 18, 1999). "Horké Léto 2 update". iDNES.cz. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  11. ↑ Polách, Zdeněk (January 7, 2000). "Demo: Horké Léto 2". iDNES.cz. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  12. ↑ Redakce (February 3, 2012). "Horké léto 2 na iPhonech a iPadech: Izer po 30 minut zdarma, pak zaplatit". Deník.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  13. ↑ Poláček, Petr (May 4, 2012). "Horké léto 2 - obstála česká klasika s Izerem v iOS konkurenci?". Games.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  14. ↑ "Raiders of the Lost Casino". Blue's News. May 22, 2005,. Retrieved 2018-10-02. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ↑ Poischich (June 1, 2005). "Une vidéo de Raiders of the Lost Casino". Gamekult (in French). Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  16. ↑ Writing staff (December 16, 2005). "Images: Raiders Of The Lost Casino joue de malchance". Jeuxvideo.com.
  17. ↑ "Акелла срывает куш". StopGame.ru. January 12, 2006.
  18. ↑ "Evil Days of Luckless John". Jeuxpo.com. 2007.
  19. ↑ Gric, Kamil (June 21, 2001). "Horké léto aneb Majer v akci". Doupe.cz.
  20. ↑ Jiříková, Lucie (November 27, 2013). "Top 10 nejlepších českých her všech dob". PCTuning.cz. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  21. ↑ Ondřej J. (April 16, 2015). "Vybrali jsme ty nejlepší české a slovenské hry. Shodneš se s naší top dvacítkou?". Refresher.
  22. ↑ Ticháček, Petr (July 25, 1999). "Horké léto 2 preview". iDNES.cz. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  23. ↑ "Horké Léto 2". iDNES.cz. 13 December 1999.
  24. ↑ "The Evil Days of Luckless John - PC".
  25. ↑ "Evil Days of Luckless John - Review - Adventure Classic Gaming - ACG - Adventure Games, Interactive Fiction Games - Reviews, Interviews, Features, Previews, Cheats, Galleries, Forums". www.adventureclassicgaming.com.
  26. ↑ "Adventure's Planet - Recensione : Evil Days of Luckless John". www.adventuresplanet.it.
  27. ↑ "Žhavé léto 3 a půl". iDNES.cz. 6 January 2006.
  28. ↑ "Evil Days of Luckless John PC Summary - GameWatcher". www.gamewatcher.com.
  29. ↑ gameslave.co.uk, Craig Dudley,. "Evil Days of Luckless John Review, gameSlave". www.gameslave.co.uk.
  30. ↑ "Test (Wertung) zu Evil Days of Luckless John (Adventure) - 4Players.de".
  31. ↑ "Test Evil Days Of Luckless John sur PC".
  32. ↑ Frank, Hans. "Evil Days of Luckless John". Adventure-Treff.
  33. ↑ "Evil Days of Luckless John".
  34. ↑ "Žhavé léto 3 a půl". iDNES.cz. 6 January 2006.
  35. ↑ Tiscali. "Více o české hře Raiders of the Lost Casino (Žhavé léto 3 a půl) - Games.cz". Games.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2018-10-02.
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