''Orion Burger'' 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 ...

developed by

Sanctuary Woods Sanctuary Woods Multimedia, Inc. was a Canadian-American multimedia developer and third-party game publisher. It was one of the early multimedia companies developing products for CD-ROM distribution. The founders, Brian Beninger and Toni Beni ...

and published by

Eidos Interactive Eidos Interactive Limited (formerly Domark Limited) was a British video game publisher based in Wimbledon, London. Among its franchises were '' Championship Manager'', '' Deus Ex'', ''Hitman'', '' Thief'' and ''Tomb Raider''. Domark was founded ...

for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

and

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

. It follows a young man saving the Earth from an interstellar fast food chain through a

time loop The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby Character (arts), characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition. Time loops are co ...

. The game was developed using ''M4'', Sanctuary Woods' title for the ''MicroProse Adventure Development System''. It was the company's second and final title not made for children, after '' The Riddle of Master Lu''.

Plot

Orion Burger is vexed. Environmentalist pressure is threatening the company's pretense that it only uses unintelligent raw materials, forcing it to abduct pet shop assistant Wilbur Wafflemeier and test him for

sentience Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations. It may not necessarily imply higher cognitive functions such as awareness, reasoning, or complex thought processes. Some writers define sentience exclusively as the capacity for ''v ...

before scouring his planet clean. The company is still brazen enough to rig the tests. Wilbur fails miserably. He is supposed to be returned to the moment he left and remember nothing, but the teleporter fails even worse. Wilbur arrives intact to a time one hour before his abduction, and can now cheat back.

Gameplay

''Orion Burger'' has a

mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

-driven interface with the commands "take", "use", and "talk". It features full voice-acting, which its ''

Pelit ''Pelit'' ("Games") is a Finnish video games magazine published in Helsinki, Finland. History ''Pelit'' dates back to 1987, as an annual extra games-only issue of ''MikroBitti'' and '' C-lehti''. Another annual issue was published in 1988, and i ...

'' review complimented, but which ''

MikroBitti ''Mikrobitti'' (formerly called ''MB'', ''MikroBitti'' and ''MikroBITTI'') is a monthly Finnish computer magazine published in Helsinki, Finland. History and profile ''MikroBITTI'' was first published in May 1984. The original publisher was Tec ...

'' insulted. It also uses a variety of ambient background noises, but little music. Gameplay consists of wandering around Wilbur's hometown of Boonsville, solving puzzles to gather gear and information for the aliens' five tests. Wilbur is abducted at regular intervals, tested, and returned to Boonsville through the failing teleporter for another iteration of the loop. Going back in time resets the town and empties Wilbur's inventory, but after Wilbur passes a test, he'll automatically (and instantly) prepare for it on all subsequent iterations. Some tests are puzzles themselves, others merely cutscenes. Events happen at specific times, allowing Wilbur to take advantage of his foreknowledge. The player can also opt to skip straight to the abduction or give up on a test. Due to the time-loop gameplay mechanic, the game cannot be lost or rendered

unwinnable A no-win situation or lose–lose situation is an outcome of a negotiation, conflict or challenging circumstance in which all parties are worse off. It is an alternative to a win–win or outcome in which one party wins. Arbitration or media ...

Reception

The Finnish gaming magazine ''

'' gave the game a full-length review; reviewer Tapio Salminen awarded it a score of 92%. Salminen praised its audiovisual design, its humor, a cheerful, laid-back atmosphere that makes it pleasant to play (the threat of planetary genocide notwithstanding), and in particular its puzzles. He noted that "certain parties" (''jotkut tahot'') considered the game ruined by the periodic abductions, but that he found the time limits to be plentiful. The Finnish general computing magazine ''

'' savaged the game, awarding it 67%. According to the review, ''Orion Burger'' did have "all the usual features of an adventure game, well executed" (''Kaikki seikkailupelin tavanomaiset piirteet löytyvät hyvin toteutettuina)'', and its graphics, animation, and smooth interface were particularly pleasant. The review went on to describe the time limit as a fiendish device which caused all three test players to lose interest by the time they passed the first test, and which forces the player to endure unbearable amounts of blather without the chance to meaningfully affect the game.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 1234707 1996 video games Adventure games Classic Mac OS games DOS games Eidos Interactive games Point-and-click adventure games Works set in restaurants Sanctuary Woods games Single-player video games Video games about alien abduction Video games about alien invasions Video games about extraterrestrial life Video games about time travel Video games developed in the United States