Little Big Adventure(LBA), or Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure, as it is known as in the US, is an action/adventure game for PC and Playstation, produced by French developer group Adeline Software and released by Electronic Arts in 1995. The game puts you in control of Twinsen, the game's protagonist, whose goal is to rid his home planet, Twinsun, from the clutches of the evil Dr. Funfrock.
The game is viewed from an isometric point of view, and the locations are composed of pre-rendered tiles, while the creatures and usable objects are rendered in real-time. The game's "look" is definitively cartoony and non-violent, and most people would probably wave it off as a child's game. This, however is not the case at all, and I have quite a hard time believing a child could even complete half of the game due to it's sheer difficulty, game world size and clumsy saving system.
Due to the game's relatively good sales numbers, both in the US and in Europe, Adeline started work on a sequel to the game, called LBA 2, or Twinsen's Odyssey on the US market.
Little Big Adventure 2
LBA 2, the sequel to LBA, was released in 1997, produced by the same people as it's prequel, but this time released by Activision. The game concept is the same, but the game is techically more advanced than the prequel, perhaps not surprisingly. The goal of the game is the same, to rid Twinsun (and two nearby planets, this time) of an unnamed villain, later in the game revealed to be none other than the very same Dr. Funfrock who was "killed" in the first game. Ah, the surprise.
The game's graphics engine is twofold(in a sense) this time; in interior scenes, the game is displayed in the well-known isometric style of the prequel, though when you step outside a more fancy real-time 3d renderer kicks in, giving you a (at the time) spectacular view of the locations you visit. The saving system is also more refined, now applying the much more used "save where you wish"-technique, much to everyone's enjoyment.
According to recent rumors, a sequel to the LBA-games will be released in 2005.