Did you know there were actually several endings to Thimbleweed Park? You may have gotten the really bad one… you know which one it is: the one that feels lazy, recycles concept art, takes away all motivation, and mocks the player for suspending their disbelief. Well fear not! Follow these steps to get to the best ending in the game:
Enter the factory.
Pass the fan blocking your way to the computer room. (I won’t spoil the puzzle)
Press the button on Philipp’s Dangerous Dövice (from Chuck’s workshop). Repeat until Delores actually pushes the button.
Enjoy the best ending in the game!
Wasn’t that game just great? Really took you back to the good old days. Did you notice how mysterious the ending was, and yet, how it didn’t make the game pointless? How it didn’t insult your intelligence by trying to be an artistic experience when all we wanted was a good adventure game? How it didn’t abuse the trust of the player in the author of the game? How it didn’t take advantage of adventure gamers’ well-known Stockholm syndrome? How it didn’t try to pull a meaningless, ‘clever’ twist ending in a gameworld that requires heavy suspension of disbelief to begin with? How it didn’t mock the player for working hard to look past obvious shortcomings of the medium? How it didn’t reinforce the image of the author as the master of bad endings, after that MI2 fiasco so many years ago? How it was a clear sign that the author brought his A-game to this work by not disrespecting the mystery and the player, and by not recycling crappy concept art? Man, that Ron Gilbert’s a real genius.
Come on, guys. Don’t attack him, whoever he is. Man, his review is quite angry! But it’s not badly written, and I can get his point. It is a bad review, but fair, in my opinion; and it is sarcastic as a bad review should be. What is arguable is: why publish a bad and sarcastic review HERE, in a fan forum? I don’t see any other reason than trolling. So guys, don’t feed the troll and be honest with him. His review was a big effort, and I enjoyed reading it!
We both know there is only one person on this earth who understands the true meaning of that word and he (probably? hopefully?) most likely doesn´t read this forum…
I can imagine him screaming and cursing at the screen at best.
I don´t know how to fake tweets(just as a picture not really on twitter). Otherwise I had written one of him raving about TwP and it´s ending in his usual lingo (“grumpy gilbert who is totally overrated just cantnot deliever, SAD” or something like that), Stephen King was actually fooled by one of those a while ago, but I don´t want to give Ron any Nightmares.
It is a Thimbleweed Park forum (with some other discussion on other adventures also). Most people who join this place are fans of the game but that doesn’t preclude those who aren’t fans from talking about the game. It’s logical that they’d post their views on TWP on a TWP forum.
It seems like he is a fan… or was, until he got to the ending.
There were people who hated the ending of MI2 too, and also some who very loved it. Ron knew what he was doing.
I was indeed a fan until the ending. Regarding the MI2 ending, I didn’t like it as a kid, but I appreciate it as an adult, even though it does remove from much of the purpose in the Monkey Island universe. It was also ambiguous, what with the glow in Chuckie’s eyes (I read somewhere that they forced Ron to do that, but I could be wrong). That ambiguity made the ending even better, because it allowed both worlds to co-exist.
Thimbleweed’s ending is terrible IMO, and not even close to the league of MI2.
Reading your statement, I had a deja vu, because when elsewhere I explained why some of the aspects of the game “didn’t click” for me and weren’t my cup of tea, I also added: “Let’s see how time will influence my perception, sometimes a piece of art just needs more time to sink in.”.
It seems to me that we can’t completely exclude the hypothesis that we need another 25 years to fully appreciate Thimbleweed Park, not because the game changes but because we change.
My opinion on the ending of MI2 seems to be diametral different to mostly everybody else in that at the time I didn´t mind it and saw it as a clifhanger and set up for the next game. Only over time when I realized we will never get a definitve answer, although it (probably) is out there I got a little sad.