Plumbers Don't Wear Ties
| Plumbers Don't Wear Ties | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Kirin Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Kirin Entertainment |
| Director(s) | Michael Anderson[1] |
| Producer(s) | Michael Anderson[1] |
| Composer(s) | Martin Golnick[2] Audio Micro |
| Platform(s) | 3DO |
| Genre(s) | Adult interactive movie |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties is an adult-oriented graphic adventure game produced and released by Kirin Entertainment in 1994. Kirin's first published game, it tells the story of John and Jane, that are being pressured by their respective parents to find a suitable spouse, and it's up to the player to get John and Jane together.
Plot
In the early 1990s, John and Jane are both Los Angeles locals who are being pressured by their respective parents to find a suitable spouse. John is a plumber who is told by his mother to go to her house with John's current girlfriend, Amy, for dinner at 6:00 pm, and Jane is a college student, who is considered a "Daddy's Girl", going to a prospective job interview. John and Jane both meet in a parking lot, and John instantly falls in love with Jane, calling her "Perfect". John decides not to go to work and stays in the parking lot to wait for Jane to leave from her job interview so he can meet Jane again. Around this time, it is revealed that the game is being narrated by Harry Armis.
When Jane is at the interview, Jane's prospective boss, Mark Thresher, attempts to rape her after telling her to have sex with him to get a job, and eventually Jane runs away from Mark. When John finds her being chased by Mark, John comes in and saves her, and Mark, Jane and John end up in the middle of an abandoned house. Around this time, Harry Armis is replaced by a female narrator, before being shot multiple times by Harry Armis, who then Armis is now the narrator.[3]
After the chase, Mark tries to pay Jane for sex. Jane refuses the offer, after John tells him that Jane loves him, and that she wants to marry him for a lifetime. John and Jane both walk out of the house and Mark is going to get arrested after calling the police, and John and Jane live happily ever after.
Gameplay
A full motion video clip features Jane introducing the player to the main objective and basic rules of the game. From that point onwards the entire format is that of still photographs with actors reading dialogue. The narrator also changes once during the game, before being changed back to the original a few scenes later.[3]
The only Gameplay (interaction) is where the player gets to choose the storyline (2 to 3 choices) in a DVD menu style manner, although there is only one to two right choices. At certain points in the game, the player has the opportunity to choose what actions John or Jane will do; making the right choices will bring the characters together, while making the wrong choices will result in commentary from the game's two narrators, who sometimes fight with each other. If enough bad choices are made, the player is given the choice to restart the game or try and make the right choice.[3]
Reception
Critical response to the game was overwhelmingly negative. Criticisms focused on the game's voice acting, controls for making a choice, and for being a slideshow and not Full Motion Video, as advertised on the box.[4] The game became "the symbol for everything that was wrong with giving a license to anyone that wanted one."[5]
In giving the game a 15% rating, Diego Antico wrote: "It's hard to determine where Plumbers Don't Wear Ties is at its most horrendous. Is it in the pathetic music department? The graphics (or its lack thereof)? The awful gameplay?"[6] Allgame gave the game one star. The site made note of how despite it being advertised as full motion video, it was simply a slideshow.[7] In The Video Game Bible, Andy Slaven said that the "humorous" results from choosing the wrong option "can't save this title from being horrible."[8] Video Games & Computer EntertainmenT magazine criticized the game for being all just "still pictures of the director's friends acting like goofballs and delivering bad voiceovers", also stating: "Not even the promise of some naked pictures could save this disc from becoming a joke around here. Avoid this one at all costs, it looks like a bad Public Access show and that's the pits."[9] They also listed the game #1 in PC Gamer's "Must NOT Buy" list, stating: "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties is a shallow, hateful waste of a game, and may very well be responsible for having killed the 3DO, interactive fiction, and the whale."[10]
Cast
- Edward J. Foster - John[11]
- Jeanne Basone - Jane[11]
- Paul Bokor - Thresher[11]
- Harry Armis - Male narrator, Jane's father[11]
- Thyra Metz - Wilma, Female narrator[11]
- Violetta Gevorkian - John's mother[11]
- Danny Beyda[11]
- Giovanni Cuarez[11]
- Samantha Eggersoll (voice of John's mother)[11]
- Grant Swanson[11]
- Daniel Taylor[11]
- Soumaya Young[11]
References
- ^ a b "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties credits". allgame. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
- ^ Plumbers Don't Wear Ties beginning credits.
- ^ a b c Kirin Entertainment (1994). Plumbers Don't Wear Ties manual. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Seitz, Dan (July 18, 2010). ""Plumbers Don't Wear Ties": Gaming's First (and Only) Surrealist Softcore Adventure". Uproxx. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
- ^ Fahs, Travis. "Die, 16-bit, Die!". IGN. p. 8. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
- ^ Antico, Diego (2006). Antiquated Reviews: Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, Defunct Games.
- ^ Plumbers Don't Wear Ties Overview, Allgame.
- ^ Slaven, Andy (2002). The Video Game Bible. Trafford Publishing. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-55369-731-2. Retrieved 8 September 2009.
- ^ Plumbers Don't Wear Ties Review. Video Games & Computer Entertainment. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
- ^ "PC Gamer's Must NOT Buy". Video Games & Computer Entertainment. p. 3. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Plumbers Don't Wear Ties end credits.