''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 group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

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

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fo ...

games created by 7th Level. 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 the United States and Canada. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Asso ...

in North America.

Plot and gameplay

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 Mrs. Particle and Mrs. Velocity sketch was released as an unlockable easter egg in the game.

Development

It was the third in a trilogy of Python games developed by 7th Level, after '' Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time'' and '' Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail''. Halfway through making the Meaning of Life game, 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 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 {{Adventure-videogame-stub