The point-and-click adventure game has been one of the great casualties of gaming's relentless march towards progress. Massively popular in the 1990s but now reduced to relics of a bygone era, point-and-click games have all but fallen by the wayside as more sophisticated mechanics, graphics, and interfaces left the once popular format looking as outdated as a floppy disk or an old VHS.

The decline in one of gaming's simplest yet most misunderstood genres has been a great loss, perhaps more than people realize. Point-and-click titles might now seem rudimentary, but their carefully crafted narrative puzzle structure made them far more varied than they first appear, ranging from mildly taxing to mind-bendingly difficult. With Return to Monkey Island heralding a welcome return for the genre's flagship franchise in 2022, fans may see a resurgence of a genre that never truly got the credit it deserved. In the meantime, here are five of the best point-and-click titles for gamers who enjoyed Return to Monkey Island.

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Grim Fandango Is Macabre Mayhem

grim fandango remastered

A true icon of the genre, Grim Fandango follows the adventures of Manny Calavera, a travel agent working in the land of the dead trying to help client Mercedes "Meche" Colomar gain proper passage to the Underworld. Massively influenced by South American cultural myths surrounding death and mortality, Grim Fandango is the sort of game that has a clear love for its source material without ever exploiting it for its own cheap gain.

Yet, Grim Fandango's legacy is one defined by paradox. On the one hand, Tim Schaefer's noir-inspired masterpiece still holds up as one of the best games ever made regardless of era or type. Its mature blending of style and substance has earned it a reputation as a genre-defining classic among those in the know. Sadly, its legacy has been tarnished somewhat by evidence that LucasArts' decision to move away from its beloved point-and-click adventure games was largely due to Grim Fandango's underwhelming mainstream commercial performance -- a cruel irony.

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Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle Is Peak LucasArts

The Day of the Tentacle is so good that many people forget that the game preceding it even exists. Released in 1993 as a follow-up to 1987's Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle is yet another home run for LucasArts at a time when the gaming division of LucasFilm could seemingly do no wrong. As far as games having a sense of humor, Day of the Tentacle is right up there with its monkey-themed pirate rival.

It's also one of LucasArts' oddest titles -- no mean feat considering the competition comes from one franchise revolving around ghost pirates and voodoo and another that blended film noir tropes with Mesoamerican beliefs about the afterlife. Day of the Tentacle follows Bernard Bernoulli and his pals Laverne and Hoagie as they bounce around the recesses of history and the future trying to stop the planet from being taken over by a nefarious purple tentacle. It may be strange, but Day of the Tentacle remains a defining masterpiece of a bygone era.

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There Are Few Games as Influential as Myst

Myst Title Promo Poster 2021

It's easy to stray into hyperbole when discussing the legacy of games that helped shape the cultural landscape, but there's no question that the influence and impact that Myst has had on contemporary AAA gaming has been nothing short of seismic. First released in 1993, Myst was penned by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller as they looked to introduce epic storytelling to a medium that, at that time at least, was still very much seen as a niche medium.

The jump in technical splendor that Myst ended up making was enormous. Its masterful use of computer-generated imagery melded with genuinely great storytelling and a knack for immersive world design made the fantasy title an instant hit. Cyan's magnum opus still holds its place as a pivotal moment in the history of modern gaming, a fact made all the more astonishing considering that co-creator Robyn Miller had only ever played one game in his whole life before turning his efforts to one of the most influential adventure titles ever made.

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Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Brought Cinematic Adventure to the PC

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Screenshot Nico Collard

Much like Myst and many of the truly great games that would emerge in the 1990s, Broken Sword looked to bring classic, character-driven storytelling fare to families across the globe. It set out to prove that the enthralling adventures that had come to be associated with the Hollywood big screen could be replicated, maybe even bettered, when transferred to the humble household PC.

The entire Broken Sword series is hugely influenced by the classic cinematic adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones, not to mention the literary legacy forged by Stephenson, Verne, and Dumas. Yet, it's far more than a franchise that relies on pastiche and parody to get by. Following the dynamic duo of lawyer George Stobbart and journalist Nico Collard, Shadow of the Templars proved that games could tell very big stories on what was a relatively small screen.

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Cyberpunk Enthusiasts Will Adore Beneath a Steel SkyAn image of Beneath A Steel Sky.

Cyberpunk RPG adventures are absolutely everywhere at the moment. Examples are Citizen Sleeper, The Ascent, The Observer, and Ghostrunner. It's safe to say that Beneath a Steel Sky was well ahead of the curve when jumping on the dystopian trend peddled by Hollywood and transposing it to what was then a more primitive technological medium.

Set in a cyberpunk dystopia, Beneath a Steel Sky follows protagonist Robert Foster as he makes his way through the corrupt and divided society of Union City after having spent years in an abandoned wasteland as a child. Incredibly immersive and relentlessly funny, Beneath a Steel Sky proved that LucasArts didn't have a complete monopoly on telling very engaging, hilarious stories.