''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'' is an

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

created by

7th Level 7th Level was a video game development company based in Dallas, Texas and founded in 1993. Notable game titles by the company include: the three Monty Python games (with the aid of Python member Eric Idle); '' G-Nome'' (1997), a ''MechWarrior''-s ...

in 1997 for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. The game is based on the 1983 film of the same name and was the third of three

Monty Python Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...

games created by 7th Level. Notably, it was rated Mature by the

ESRB The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Softw ...

in North America.

Summary

Loosely based on the 1983 film of the same name, the title sees the player traverse through the different stages of life while collecting items. The Monty Python ''Mrs. Particle and Mrs. Velocity'' comedy sketch audio is included as an unlockable easter egg in the game.

Development

''The Meaning of Life'' was the third in a trilogy of Python games developed by 7th Level, after ''

Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time ''Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time'' is a collection of minigames, screensavers, desktop wallpaper and icons for Mac OS System 7 and Windows released in 1994 by 7th Level, Inc. It was brought on board the Mir Space Station by astronaut An ...

'' and ''

Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail ''Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail'' is an adventure game created by 7th Level in 1996 for Windows. The game is based on the 1975 film ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' and was the second of three Monty Python games created by 7th L ...

''. Halfway through developing The Meaning of Life, 7th Level went bankrupt, leading to Take Two Software to take over the financing, development and publication of the title. Due to the hurried completion, the game was released with various bugs. The game went gold on November 4, 1997. While preparing for the fall launch of the title, Eric Idle also worked on the expansion of PythOnline.

Critical reception

The Los Angeles Times said the game is "heavy on disjointed, psychedelic cartoons". Destructoid felt the game had "completely nonsensical, illogical, weird-as-hell puzzles". Adventureclassicgaming asserted that it plays more like an adventure game than previous Python titles. Just adventure felt the interface was easy to use. PC Gamer gave high praise to its sense of humour. Entertainment Weekly wrote that it "subverts multimedia conventions and good taste with equally silly vigor". The AV Vault noted the game's use of dry off-the-wall humour. Monty Python fansite Montypython.net wrote it is "difficult, maddeningly illogical, silly and sure to offend".

References

External links

Monty Python homepage at 7th Level (Archived)
1997 video games Adventure games Windows games Windows-only games Monty Python video games Parody video games Video games based on films Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games 7th Level games Adaptations of works by Terry Gilliam {{Adventure-videogame-stub