Garbled nonsense that tangentially relates to adventure games

My interest in Adventure games has waxed and waned over my gaming years. I started when I was about twelve, and while I do not remember the specific game I played first, I suspect it was something in the Kings Quest series. Something by Sierra, in any event. I eventually made my way over to the LucasArts games, and I remember especially liking Sam and Max Hit the Road and Day of the Tentacle.

In my more mature years (the past two weeks) my interest in Adventures has again waxed, and I am currently determining a plan of attack for playing some of the seminal titles in the genre. While figuring out the particulars I have played most of Grim Fandango (and plan to finish it tonight in honor of Día de los Muertos, during which all of the action takes place). I remembered the game being highly regarded (it was, it won Best Graphics, best Adventure and Game of the Year from Gamespot) and I have always regretted not having played it. With the exception of the clunky controls, it has lived up to expectations.

I am not certain what has reawakened my interest in this type of game, whether it has been the new Sam and Max games, the advent of the DS (whose interface has reminded developers that they should be making them), playing Grim Fandango, or something else, but there is no stopping this tide (unless I lose interest, which is entirely possible if history is any guide).

For now I have a short list of games I feel are important to play in order to understand the genre. In some yet to be determined order, I plan to play Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, The Last Express and The Longest Journey. If I am successful in playing these and remain interested in this little project, I will move backwards in time and play some of the real trailblazers. At this point I think those early games are a little intimidating and I don’t want to lose steam this early.

I am fully open to suggestions, so those of you who grew up with these games as well, or are still playing them, feel free to weigh in on what I should be playing. Just keep in mind I am more likely to play them in the foreseeable future if they came out after say…1991.