Simon the Sorcerer 3D

Simon the Sorcerer 3D (also known as Simon 3D), was released by Adventure Soft on 13 April 2002 for Microsoft Windows. The story follows where Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe left off but some time in the future. Simon finds himself trapped in a strange world, involved in a race against time to beat Sordid to his only route home!

The game features 3D graphics, a first for the series: Unfortunately, due to the game being delayed for almost two years, Simon 3D looked outdated when compared to other 3D games on the market at the time. However reviews stated that the game has a massive game world with over 10,000 pieces of voiced dialogue. Adventure Soft's own website claims that there is over 40 hours of gameplay over the two discs. The sarcastic attitude and cruel humour of the series carries through to this instalment, bringing it up a level from Simon the Sorcerer II.

Brian Bowles returns as the voice of Simon.

Plot
It opens with a lengthy cut-scene explaining how Simon's body, which had been separated from his soul by Sordid in the second game, was recovered and "rejoined" with his soul. At the start of the game Simon's immediate objective is to get to the city Poliganis and join Calypso. Before he can do this several smaller tasks have to be completed, in typical adventure game fashion. Upon arriving in Poliganis he is greeted by Melissa Leg, the heroine who apparently rescued his body from Sordid. She wants a favour in return: to track down the Swampling and let her know of his whereabouts. Eventually Simon finds the Swampling, and there follows several revelations concerning the game's storyline as well as the origins of the Universe.

Characters
Several of the characters from the first two games make appearances, including Calypso, the Swampling, Goldilocks, the RPG players (a different faction this time), the Hedgehog Boy, Sordid, Runt, and the two Demons.

There are also many new characters, continuing the theme of a fantasy world: They include a Fairy Godmother, Judas, the High Priest of the Temple of Life, the Keeper of the Soul Bell, the man in the hole, the Entomologist, the Inbred Yokel (and Daisy), the Dwarf Prince and his clan, the Dragon Soddinell, S.I.G.N. the alcoholic golem, the Gnomes and the noblemen who fire them, a heroic prince, Coneman the Barabrain (his spelling was never very good), Jar Nin, the real Melissa Leg, a Welsh cheese wagon driver, the Barman with a hunch, Yvette, the vacuum cleaner salesman, the Sheriff, Porkins, the Wizard's Guild, various Orcs, street urchins, the Pizza Lord and his brother, the woodcutter, the lawyer, Grandulf, a drunken Druid, the Princess and Sir Squeaksalot, and the Wigologist.

Development
Development started as a traditional 2D point and click adventure game, but due to lack of publisher interest the design team chose to switch to a 3D adventure game. The project suffered from a very long development time, resulting in the game's graphics being severely outdated by release. For this and other reasons, the game was poorly received by critics.

The game was originally supposed to be distributed by Hasbro Interactive, a company which left the project in the last minute and shortly afterwards went through bankruptcy. As a result of this partnership, there are numerous allusions to Hasbro and its products within the game.

Reception
Simon 3D suffered in its reception for having poor graphic quality as well as poor controls. However the game's story, humor and gameplay were praised as being faithful to the series. The game received generally mixed reviews with a Critic score on Gamesport of 5.8, and a gamerankings score of 58%.