The Three Stooges (1987)
Cinemaware's fifth Amiga release, The Three Stooges, arrived in 1987 and was based on the antics of the American comedy trio. The short film series of the same name ran from 1922 to 1970. The game features the central characters of the films – Moe, Larry and Curly – with Moe mercilessly bossing around the other two bunglers. There are board game-like elements here, combined with arcade action and a touch of simple strategy. In practice, the game is built around five different minigames. The Three Stooges captures the spirit of the films remarkably well, but it is also repetitive and highly mechanical. I knew the game from my Amiga years in the 1990s, and it was interesting to return to it some thirty years later.
The Three Stooges was designed by John Cutter. Cutter also worked behind the scenes on many other Cinemaware titles and was, in fact, the company's first employee. The game was ported to the Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, NES and Game Boy Advance. An enhanced version was also released for Windows and Mac in 2002. At the time, The Three Stooges was praised for its graphics and speech, while its humour and adaptation of the film series were generally considered successful. Criticism, however, focused on its shallow gameplay and repetition, and the collection of minigames was often seen as lacking cohesion. I understand the criticism, but I find myself disagreeing with it to some extent.
Unlikely Heroes
The opening sequence misleadingly begins with the logo and music from Defender of the Crown. Soon enough, however, the oddball trio arrives to take charge. Any similarities to Defender of the Crown end there, unless one counts the brisk pace at which everything unfolds. Like Defender of the Crown, The Three Stooges can be completed in roughly half an hour. Cheerful music plays in the background as the trio walks past the credits, presented as roadside advertisements.
The game's story centres on an orphanage burdened by unpaid rent and falling into disrepair. The atmosphere evokes the 1920s and 1930s, along with the hardships of the Great Depression. A greedy and unpleasant banker demands payment and threatens to evict the orphanage residents. Our heroic trio comes to the rescue. The player's task is to raise at least $5,000 to cover the overdue rent. Raising $10,000 or more allows the building itself to be renovated. There are 30 days available to collect the money.
A 30-Day Working Streak That Can End Abruptly
Every working day begins in the same way. The trio gathers to determine their next odd job or stroke of luck. This is represented by a bar at the top of the screen, divided into different sections. A pointer jumps from section to section in a random order, and the player may stop it on a desired section if quick enough. As the days pass, the pointer speeds up and can become almost impossible to control. If no choice is made, the game selects one at random.
One of the sections leads to a beating session, in which the player-controlled Moe disciplines his companions to alter the speed of the pointer. Punches, ear-pulls and kicks may either hit or be avoided. A meter shows how successful hits slow the pointer down, while misses or inaction push it towards the faster end of the scale.
The odd jobs send the trio to a hospital, a boxing event, work as waiters or a peculiar eating contest. Each job consumes one working day, and the earnings depend on performance. All of the jobs are inspired by situations seen in the films. Lucky breaks come in the form of bundles of cash found on the street. A Three Stooges trivia quiz also consumes a day.
There is also a mousetrap section, where a trap snaps shut on Moe's finger. If four fingers are lost during the game, it ends prematurely, regardless of how many days remain. Equally unwelcome is the banker section, which sends the trio to visit him. This wastes an entire working day and, in the worst case, the banker confiscates 10% of their savings.
Easy Once You Know How (Signed: Save-State Cheater)
I found the mousetrap to be a genuine nuisance, and it repeatedly ended my games before their natural conclusion. Because of that, I eventually resorted to save-state cheating, something my emulator kindly allowed. Thanks to this trickery, I managed to collect more than $10,000 and save the orphanage.
As for the difficulty, I would not call it particularly high. The minigames are designed to be learned, and once the techniques and strategies become clear, collecting enough money within 30 days is entirely achievable. I do think, however, that the pointer becomes excessively fast and that mousetraps appear far too often.
The Three Stooges is a joystick game. Directions and the fire button handle everything, from selections to movement.
By modern standards, the minigames are not particularly polished. To put it mildly, they are rough around the edges. The most difficult one for me was Larry's dash through the streets to fetch a radio, and because of that I never once won the boxing match. The running sequence involves avoiding obstacles, and correctly timed jumps are absolutely essential. I do remember succeeding at it in the past, though. Perhaps that was the persistence learned from being a player in those days. The often brutal difficulty and merciless randomness of older games had toughened me up.
Beautiful Pixels and Authentic Crackle
Alongside the music, the game features sound effects and, perhaps most importantly, speech, which was a major selling point in the late 1980s. The sampled audio is of fairly low quality, but it comes directly from the films and is therefore authentic. As with other Cinemaware productions, the atmosphere is spot on. Even if you are unfamiliar with the original film series, its slapstick humour comes across clearly.
The game's cinematic scenes feature images taken directly from the films, allowing players to see the original actors behind Moe, Larry and Curly. Otherwise, the visuals consist of 16–32 colour pixel art. The graphics make heavy use of dithering, a technique where differently coloured pixels are mixed or placed side by side so that, when viewed from a distance, they appear as a single colour or create shading effects.
Verdict
The genre of The Three Stooges is difficult to define precisely. It is clearly a hybrid. There is arcade-style action, a touch of strategy and a degree of time management. To me, the minigames and various scenes form a coherent whole, held together by the mission to save the orphanage. This sort of charitable cause always seems to inspire me, and succeeding in it is genuinely satisfying.
The interaction between Moe, Larry and Curly is rough, rowdy and distinctly streetwise. I have never seen the films on which the game is based, and I do not know whether they would make me laugh. As a game, however, The Three Stooges possesses the same charm as Cinemaware's Defender of the Crown and It Came from the Desert, both of which I have previously covered on Samooja. This too is a small mechanical toy whose appearance draws you in and whose gameplay – well, it works. Perhaps the most irritating aspect is the pace; there is always pressure, and mistakes are rarely forgiven.
I give my experience with The Three Stooges a score of 63 out of 100.
Availability
The Amiga version of The Three Stooges can be played through emulators or on original Amiga hardware. I played it on the Retro Games A500 Mini. The game file can be found from various sources – see "Possible Download Sites" on Lemon Amiga's game page.