I.M. Meen
I.M. Meen | ||
---|---|---|
Composer(s) Anthony Trippi | | |
Platform(s) | DOS | |
Release |
| |
Genre(s) | Educational, first-person shooter, fantasy | |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
I.M. Meen is a 1995 fantasy educational game for DOS to teach grammar to children.[1][2] It is named for its villain, Ignatius Mortimer Meen, a "diabolical librarian" who lures young readers into an enchanted labyrinth and imprisons them with monsters and magic.[2]
The goal of the game is to escape the labyrinth and free other children. This is accomplished by "shooting spiders and similar monsters" and deciphering grammatical mistakes in scrolls written by Meen.[3]
The game was created by Russo-American company Animation Magic, which also animated the CD-i games Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon.[3][4]
Plot
The evil magician Ignatius Mortimer Meen captures two children named Scott and Katie and imprisons them in an underground labyrinth disguised as a book. In the labyrinth, the player meets Meen's gnome henchman, Gnorris, who betrays his boss to aid the player and tells them to free the other captured children.
The player travels through the labyrinth, defeating the monsters and rescuing the children, causing the labyrinth's condition to rapidly deteriorate. The player must eventually confront I.M. Meen himself and defeat him using Writewell's Book of Better Grammar. Meen then flees, vowing revenge on the player as the game ends.
Gameplay
The game contains 36 levels[2] with nine locations, including a tower, a dungeon, sewers, caves, catacombs, hedgerow mazes, castles, laboratories, and libraries. The player must rescue all the children on each level to get to the next one, which is done by fixing grammar mistakes in various scrolls. In every fourth level, the player must defeat a boss monster, otherwise known as one of I.M. Meen's special pets, to advance to a new area. There are items in the labyrinth that can be used to help the player defeat the various monsters that dwell in the labyrinth, as well as help them out in other ways. The player has an Agility Meter, similar to a health meter that, when it runs out, takes the player back to the beginning of the level and removes all items collected on that level.
Reception
The Contra Costa Times gave the game a positive review, calling it "the first computer game for young children to use the same fast 3-D graphics found in Doom" and praising it for its educational themes.
Legacy
A 1996 sequel to the game was made, titled
Beginning circa 2007, I. M. Meen's animated
References
- ^ "Learn Math and the Meaning of Fear in Baldi's Basics -". mxdwn Games. 2018-06-05. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
- ^ a b c Media, Working Mother (December 1995). Working Mother. Working Mother Media.
- ^ a b Cobbett, Richard (2020-06-20). "Crapshoot: I.M. Meen, a grammar game with the creepiest villain". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
- ^ Cobbett, Richard (2017-08-23). "The weirdest shooters of the '90s". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
- ^ a b Cook, Brad. "I.M. Meen review". Allgame. Archived from the original on 2013-03-06. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
- ^ "Í.M. Meen - The Free Library". Archived from the original on 2016-09-13. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
- Contra Costa Times. 1995-08-11. Archived from the originalon March 4, 2016. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
- ^ Conville, Caitlyn (2018-06-15). "'Baldi's Basics' Brings Nostalgia for Millennial Gamers". Study Breaks. Archived from the original on 2018-12-11. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
- ^ Potvin, James (2022-10-17). "10 Most Memorable Viral Horror Games, Ranked". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
- ^ "Inside YouTube Poop, the nonsensical genre that invented meme culture on the internet". Inside YouTube Poop, the nonsensical genre that invented meme culture on the internet. Retrieved 2022-08-28.