Gobliiins is an Adventure/Puzzle Game developed by Coktel Vision, published in the US by Sierra, and originally released in 1991. It spawned four sequels: Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon in 1992, Goblins 3 (aka Goblin's Quest 3) in 1993, Gobliiins 4 in 2009 and Gobliiins 5: The Morgloton Invasion in 2023.
The first game is about three goblins (who are more like pixies or gnomes than your typical goblin), Dwayne, Hooter and Bobo who are respectively a technician (sometimes called a "thief" by modern fans), a wizard and a warrior. They are charged with finding a cure for their King, Angoulafre, who has become insane.
Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon is about two different goblins, Fingus (who looks the most human) and Winkle (who is purple and has a pterodactyl-like head) who have to find King Angoulafre's son who has been abducted by Amoniak, a demon lord.
Goblins 3 is about just one goblin, Blount (though the player usually controls both Blount and a sidekick character), a news reporter who investigates a conflict between two kingdoms over a giant maze. In the US, the game was renamed to Goblin's Quest 3 at the insistence of Sierra to market it as part of its Quest series of games like King's Quest and Space Quest.
Gobliiins 4 returns to the concept of Power Trio. The story is about the Detective Tchoup and his two buddies, Stucco, and Perluis, who are hired by King Balderon VIII to find his missing favorite pet, an aardvark named Riri.
In Gobliiins 5, Dwayne, Hooter and Bobo, the three goblins of the first game, return once again. This time, their quest involves locating the source of a curse that is turning everyone in their kingdom into anthropomorphic potatoes.
The number of "i"s in the titles are the same as the number of goblin characters played.
Gameplay revolves around trying to figure out correct sequences of actions. In other words, you must perform action A on one screen object with one of the characters, then quickly switch to another character to perform action B at another location, and so on until the desired result is accomplished. Given the fantastical and downright bizarre nature of the world the Goblins live in, some puzzles require thinking outside the box, and may result in Guide Dang It!.
The original game complicated matters with a "health meter" that decreases each time a sufficiently bad mistake is made. This was dropped in later games, since experimentation can sometimes be the only way to figure out the correct action sequence.
Not to be confused with the webcomic.
Tropes in the series include:
- Acid-Trip Dimension: Gobliins 2 has two settings that are surreal even compared to the rest of the game.
- All There in the Manual: Some characters' names and backstories are only mentioned in the manual. For example, the werewolf writer is called Carbonek.
- Amusing Injuries: Most botched actions result in the character in question getting pummeled in a comedic way.
- Anachronism Stew: The games take place in a vaguely Medieval-European setting, but there are many more-or-less intentional anachronisms, such as a handgun, basketball playing and scuba-diving.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- In Goblins 3, Blount will sometimes give hints to solve the puzzles, sometimes pretty much outright telling the answer. This is good or bad depending on the player. Some will be grateful if they're stuck, others may be annoyed since they would rather solve the game on their own.
- In general, the other games eliminated the "life bar" mechanic of the first one. With how obtuse a lot of the puzzles are, and how trial and error is often the only viable option to progress, players no doubt appreciated this.
- Ash Face: Played straight throughout the series, most notably in Wynnona's level in Goblins 3, which revolves around MacGyvering together various types of makeshift dynamite. These boomsticks have no trouble destroying armored stone fortifications, but if one goes off in your face the worst it does is mess up your hair.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Last stage of Gobliiins 4.
- Big Eater: In Gobliins 2 some tasks can only be completed using Fingus - because Winkle will eat the necessary items.
- Big Red Button: There is one in the cave prison where the Gobliiins get stuck. Obviously, it must not be pressed.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Prince Buffoon enters a brief rebellious phase moments after climbing down the beanstalk.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In 2 and 3 if you mess up and the goblin in question suffers some slapstick they turn towards the screen and call you out for it.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The "lion" in Gobliins 2 looks nothing like a lion at all.
- Clock Tower: In Gobliins 2 is a tree with many clocks and houses. The biggest clock makes a tick-tock sound that displeases Tom the clockmaker, and the heroes have to "replace it with a melody".
- Continuity Nod:
- Pictures of the three goblins from the first game appear on Tazaar's wall in Gobliins 2 and in the Alchemist's lab in Goblins 3.
- Similarly, Fingus and Winkle's faces appear in Queen Xina's throne room in Goblins 3.
- In Goblins 3, the Land of the Dead has graffiti on the wall saying "Amoniak was here".
- In the third game, the brutes in level 2 seem to be of the same race as Winkle from the second game. Also in the Bar not only is there a portrait of Winkle, but he has a drink named after him: "The Blue Winkle".
- Covers Always Lie: The cover art of Gobliins 2 shows Winkle being orange, even though he is clearly blue/purple in the game. It also has Fingus jumping with a sword looking like a crazed warrior, even though he is very level-headed and non-violent in the game.
- The title screen of Gobliiins shows Bobo holding an axe. He never uses an axe or any kind of weapon in the game, as he relies on Good Old Fisticuffs.
- Crystal Ball: Blount meets a female warrior called Korin who has a crystal ball as the hilt of her sword. When Blount looks inside, he sees Princess Wynnona trying to recover her father's Maze key from Fourbalus.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: In Gobliiins, there is a huge floating statue that is an obvious stand-in for Buddha, called the "Statue of Serenity".
- Dating Catwoman: Xina and Bodd of Goblins 3 are at each other's throats. They end up marrying each other at the end. Justified as you bring peace to the kingdoms by reunifying the harmony and chaos.
- Dance Party Ending: Gobliiins 4, a concert, actually.
- Dem Bones: The Gobliiins find a hostile animated skeleton in Sorcerer Niak's mansion and a more peaceful one inside the cave prison.
- The third level in Goblins 3.
- Demonic Possession: Prince Buffoon gets possessed by a demon when the Gobliins return to the village.
- Dream Land:
- Twice in Gobliins 2 do the protagonists have to eat some kind of hallucinatory mushroom and enter a colorful dream level.
- One level in Goblins 3 involves waking Blount up after he is left unconscious after an attack.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first game has a Shared Life-Meter that shrinks whenever a playing character gets hurt or embarrasses himself by doing a wrong action; the player can thus only make so much mistakes until they get a Game Over.
- Edible Bludgeon: Gobliins 2 has a big sausage (a saucisson to be specific) at the first level, one of the only food left in the village. The owner will violently smack Winkle with it if he tries to steal it (even if he's asleep!), and Fingus will have to hit a chicken on the head with this sausage to make it lay an egg. And THEN it has to be given as food.
- Eek, a Mouse!!:
- One of the puzzles in Goblins 3 consists of putting a rat in front of a Queen in a chess game to scare her off.
- Were-Blount and Fingus are afraid of mice too.
- Escaped from Hell:
- In the final stage of Gobliins 2 Fingus and Winkle have to rescue Buffoon from The Kingdom of Gloom and Doom where Amoniak abducted him.
- The third stage of Goblins 3 is Blount being eaten by a wolf and then having to find a way to escape from the afterlife.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: In Gobliiins... Ooh, boy. Too many examples to tell.
- Following games removed life-meter, making such obstacles harmless and truly hilarious. Many players try every possible action with every goblin just to see what else will attack.
- Evil Overlord: Amoniak from Gobliins 2.
- Fairy Sexy: The Gobliins meet a diminutive naked fairy around Kael the tree. She strikes a seductive pose after being rehydrated.
- Fearless Fool:
- Winkle in Gobliins 2, meaning he can complete some tasks Fingus is too shy or prudent to do.
- Same for Were-Blount in Goblins 3 and Bobo in Gobliiins.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: In the first game. Bobo's the fighter, punching things to solve puzzles. Hooter's the mage, zapping things with magic to solve puzzles. Dwayne's the thief, being the only one who relies on finesse with him being the only one who has an inventory.
- Floating Platforms: Justified for the dream sequences, but there is a floating platform near the end of Gobliins 2 that is referred as "!!!".
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When the Gobliiins enter Niak's house, if you look closely on the left, there is an eyeball that is peeking out of a jar, looks around and then hides. It has no influence to the story.
- Game-Breaking Bug: The Save feature in the Goblins series is questionable at best. Giving Goblins 3 (Amiga) the incorrect disk during a disc select will bring the game to a complete crashing halt.
- Giant Spider: A screen-stage in Gobliiins contains three different giant spiders.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen Xina in Goblins 3. Of course, she is just as mean as her enemy, King Bodd, but we see more of the violence of her soldiers.
- Good Hurts Evil: Amoniak is apparently so evil that drinking Kindness Elixir sends him to the Land of the Dead instead of turning him "nice" like his two henchmen.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Bobo will punch anything with his fists.
- Goofy Print Underwear:
- In Goblins 3, one of Were-Blount's Idle Animations has his pants drop, revealing polka-dot boxers.
- One of the loading screens in the same game shows Ooya the magician doing a handstand, revealing similar boxers under his robe.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy:
- Amoniak's guards are mostly just sleeping around.
- Bodd's men are not any better. Even though they aren't asleep, they have no problem shaking a fake hand with a stranger. Two of them don't even know how to defend themselves or raise an alarm when the said stranger is going to put them off with a golf club.
- Guide Dang It!:
- Oh boy, where do we start...? Somewhat remedied by "jokers", that give a sketchy solution for the current location. There's only 3 jokers for the whole game, but you can save the game, use a joker, then reload.
- In Goblins 3 you get 5 jokers, but the game cleverly saves your remaining count in a hidden file the moment you use one. The only way to reset your jokers is to reinstall the game.
- Hollywood Voodoo: King Angoulafre is insane because he is being tortured with a voodoo doll, as shown in the introduction.
- I Can't Reach It:
- Several times could the goblins just jump, climb and/or stretch their arms to pick up objects lying just a few centimers away from them... but this doesn't always work. Especially when in the first game, Dwayne can only pick up items that are right under him on the ground. Made worse in the second game, where, often for no reason, the heroes will inexplicably shake their heads and fingers by saying "No, no" when attempting to do some actions.
- In Goblins 3, Blount and most sidekicks reply "No, I cannot reach it directly". Frustrating when said location can be reached indirectly, through a point-to-point same screen door.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: In Gobliins 2, a scientist is forced by Amoniak to make a shrinking ray and use it on King Domenic. The heroes then use the ray on themselves to be able to use a magic map. In Goblins 3, Blount and Chump are reduced to miniature size when recovering from their giant size as they enter a city.
- Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: The heroes cannot climb. One of the worst cases is when Blount and Chump are turned into giants, they are still hindered by obstacles that should normally be no problem for them to pass. They could simply climb on the castle instead of using the giant mousetrap, and could simply reach out an arm to help Knight Bayar who is stucked behind a thorn patch.
- Jerkass: Were-Blount in Goblins 3 towards the arrogant grocer in the city, and how. Not only can you smash all his furniture, choke him and repeatedly hit him in the face with a hammer (which you stole from his cabinet after breaking it), you are in fact required to do so in order to progress in the story.
- Though the grocer actually deserves it since he's just as much jerkass, abducting Chump and hustling Blount for his only coin.
- Large and in Charge: Amoniak is the largest monster in his castle and is their ruler.
- Lighter and Softer: The sequels can easily be seen as lighter and softer than the original Gobliiins (despite already being quite comedic), which had the possiblity to die and had a dark, creepy atmosphere at several moments and locations. The third installment is downright wacky.
- The Load: The Prince Buffoon, in Gobliins 2.
- Look-Alike Lovers: Blount and Wynnona look a lot alike. In fact, she looks like a gender-flipped version of him, even wearing the same clothes! Creator Pierre Gilhodes stated it was intentional because she was meant to be his soulmate.
- Love at First Sight: Blount meeting Wynnona.
- Magic Pants: When Blount turns into a wolf, all of his clothes except his pants rip off. When he turns back, his clothes reappear.
- Magitek: As the manual puts it, to go back home in Gobliins 2, you will need to join science and magic.
- Man-Eating Plant: There are a couple of them in Niak's house. They will try eating Bo Bo... unless they have already eaten.
- Mind Screw: Once you enter the maze in Goblins 3, be prepared to throw logic out the window.
It's no wonder why no one was able to solve the maze before Blount. - Moon Logic Puzzle: In spades.
- In the first game:
- Once Dwayne picks up the meat, in order to go to the next level, he has to use the meat... on nothing.
- The Gobliiins meet a large hostile skeleton who is preventing them from taking a key. What to do? Why, giving the skeleton a cup-and-ball toy, of course! Be careful not to use it yourself, or you'll get hurt!
- In the first game:
- Non-Goblin Sidekick: Chump the parrot and Fulbert the snake.
- Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Removing an "i" for the second and third installments to make it the same number as the goblin protagonists. However, the fourth installment is called Gobliiins 4, as the original three Gobliiins reunite (though with different names).
- One-Winged Angel: Niak's three different forms when the Gobliiins fight him in the end.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Gemellor, a two-headed dragon in Gobliins who lives underground, and a dragon in Goblins 3 who can be picked up as an object by Blount when he has become a giant.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: The Gobliins meet a friendly blacksmith dwarf when they enter Amoniak's castle.
- Our Giants Are Bigger:
- Meliagante in the first game is huge and can block the gobliiins' path with just his finger.
- In Gobliins 2, a giant blocks the exit/entry of the village, and will prevent anyone from leaving, even when asleep. He will unblock the path only if given some food and wine. Later, another giant shows up... but he is completely stationary and looks more like he is a statue (though using the same level music as the other giant).
- In Goblins 3, Blount and Chump drink a potion that turn them into even bigger giants. They become extremely tiny when entering a city, though. Later, When Blount flies around above the clouds, there is a giant peeking his head behind a mountain.
- Our Goblins Are Different: They just look like small humans with pointy ears, or are purple-skinned and have heads like pterodactyls!
- Our Mermaids Are Different: They are green-skinned and literally have gems for eyes!
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Carbonek in Gobliiins is a novelist who writes depressive stories for Meliagante since he had become a werewolf. Making him laugh enough will turn him back to a human and write humorous stories.
- And Blount temporarily becomes one.
- Pirate Parrot: Chump the parrot in Goblins 3. Not really a pirate one, but it is dressed up as a sailor and is found on a ship.
- Power Trio: Gobliiins 1 & 4
- Red Herring: When the Gobliins enter Niak's castle, they meet a dwarf blacksmith who discusses a plan with them to approach Amoniak's throne room. In the background, you can clearly see a small creature spying on them... This creature is never mentioned again, and there are no consequences from this guy's eavesdropping.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: In Gobliins 2 — Fingus is a shy Nice Guy, who actually puts his mind to work, while Winkle is an abrasive Fearless Fool. To a lesser extent Blount and Wolfe in Goblins 3.
- Rock Me, Asmodeus!: In the last level of Goblins 3, there is a devil with an electric guitar and an amp.
- The Reveal: Blount is Prince Buffoon from the prequel. How did he end up as a regular journalist, we don't know.
- Shared Life-Meter: The three main characters of the first game all share a life meter. This was removed for future games in the series.
- Shout-Out:
- When the Gobliins and Prince Buffoon are reduced in size, they have to use a magical bean seed in a magic map which makes a giant beanstalk grow out of it, allowing them to climb down and this leads them back to the village in the beginning.
- The aardwark Riri in Gobliiins 4 is a reference to that ambiguously buddhistic boozook from The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble.
- Slapstick: Almost any time some goblin messes up they end up on the receiving end of some comedic pummeling.
- Smashed Eggs Hatching: At some point, there is an egg of which the chick's legs pop out. Bobo needs to punch the egg so that its wings can come out and fly, picking up Hooter to fly over the cemetary.
- Speaking Simlish: The floppy disk versions of all three games. The CD-ROM version of 2 replaced all of it with real-language voice acting, while in the CD-ROM version of 3, the conversations still happens in "Goblinese", but Blount (or one of the other characters) summarizes them in real language afterward.
- Spiritual Successor: The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble, also featuring art and character design by Pierre Gilhodes.
- Pilot Brothers games don't share any creators, but feature slapstick misadventures of a Red Oni, Blue Oni investigating duo similar to Gobliins. They were created by fans of Gobliins 2 in the dark time when a real sequel was beyond hope.
- Sudden Name Change: Dwayne, Hooter and Bobo suddenly get different names in the fourth game. Pierre Gilhodes said he changed them because he thought he no longer had the rights to use them.
- Swiss-Army Tears: Meliagante's tears of laughter in Gobliiins are needed to destroy a monster that is hiding inside his castle.
- This Is Gonna Suck:
- In the second surreal stage of Gobliins 2 Fingus is required to step by three bowling pins. As soon as he does that a bowling ball comes out of nowhere bouncing directly towards the pins and him. Fingus has only so much time to make a pathetic frown before the ball sends him flying along with the pins.
- Two examples happen just in the previous stage where Buffoon throws a tantrum, eats a poisonous mushroom out of spite and disappears. Both Fingus and Winkle have to eat the same mushroom to follow him. By their expressions shortly before the deed it's clear they don't like it a single bit.
- Toothy Bird: A chicken appears in Gobliins 2. If Fingus tries to mess with it, it will bite him with its teeth.
- Threatening Shark: Averted. The Gobliiins ride a friendly shark in the end of the game to fight the Big Bad.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Amoniak only eats ladybugs and his henchmen Glotziok and Oumkapok eat cockroaches and "gloubagoulbi" balls, respectively (the latter is a French cultural in-joke, based on the "gloubigoulba" balls that are the trademark favorite food of Casimir the Dinosaur, a children French TV icon from the late 70's).
- Treacherous Quest Giver: Niak charges the Gobliiins to find a magic mushroom, potion bottle and plant so that he can use them to heal the mad king. Turns out he only wanted them for his own benefit (because a spell prevented him from getting them himself) and he imprisons the Gobliiins in a cave. Not only that, he is the one who actually made the king mad!
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: In Goblins 3, King Bodd is a freakish-looking dude and Queen Xina is a beautiful lady. They marry in the end.
- Visual Pun: Goblins 3 first level is set on a flying ship which is about to crash, and a swarm of rats jumping off the boat which parachutes can be seen onscreen. It actually refers the French idiom "les rats quittent le navire", which literal translation is "the rats are leaving the ship" (the sentence is supposed to mean "the group dissociates because they don't see any solution to their issue").
- Walk, Don't Swim: When the Gobliins get in the underwater cave below Amoniak's castle, they never swim and they keep walking on the bottom, despite having scuba gear.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Were-Blount/Wolfy is mortified of spiders.
- Winged Humanoid: Blount can turn into one by drinking a special elixir.
- Wise Tree: Kael in Gobliins 2
- Wolf Man: After his encounter with King Bodd, Blount is attacked by a wolf which turns into a werewolf.
