LGR - I.M. Meen - DOS PC Game Review 

If Animation Magic just stopped making games and started making a full length cartoon instead, it would have been the best thing ever.

It's always a bit weird hearing a normal RU-vidr talk about something YTP related. This was a pretty good review. I think I'll subscribe.

Enough. My ship sails in the morning. I wonder what's for dinner.

Their animation looks like it was drawn freehand without reference guidelines. what I mean by that is each cell is drawn with respect to the previous frame order going one at a time. unlike the traditional method where lead animators establish key frames first and then send them off to the intern or lesser animators on the team to fill in the tween motions. if you want a better example of this kind of animation look at the animated series Superjail!

I.M. Meme

Do a Tech Tales episode about Animation Magic. I need to know why God allowed such a thing to exist.

Wow, the sprites during the first person segments are actually really good! Those monsters animate wonderfully.

I.M. Meen's sequel, Chill Manor, actually improves the inventory by giving you a Hexen-like bar at the bottom, as well as weapons with honest to God ammo. Losing all your stamina also leads to the game's antagonist, Ophelia Chill, erasing you from time completely rather than throwing you into a cell. Sadly, there's a lot less of the awesomely cheesy and weird animation. It was released some time in '96, so my guess is that the animation department was focusing more on Lord of the Clans at the time. Also, I.M. Meen got a sequel. That in itself still blows my mind a bit.

to be fair, the ingame pixel art/animation is really nice

Here's a bit from someone who actually played it back in the day when it was new. Yes, a lot of the concerns you expressed are valid. This game isn't worth much more than a nostalgia trip now. However, a lot of what you expressed as a negative actually worked for me. As a kid, I absolutely loved mazes! This was a great game for explorers. There were tons of secrets to find, and if you paid attention, some of the grammar puzzles actually helped point you to them. It was long enough ago that I don't remember exactly how many, but there were plenty of puzzles that offered hints to secret rooms in the future. Also, again if you paid attention to the writing instead of just taking a test, there's a TON of lore here. It's extremely campy, and it eventually grew on me. Reading those stories is kind of like the Tek Jansen shorts that would occur on the Colbert Report. The author, obviously Meen himself, inserts himself in all sorts of adventures as a total Mary Sue. It's so over the top, and I adore it! The antagonist is both narcissistic & vengeful, almost like a "force of nature" villain. Kind of like the motivation of Monsters Inc., he hates smart children because they don't scare easily. That's why he runs a library, so he can capture children actually interested in reading that he can't scare. This is definitely not a story to be taken seriously in any way. Now yes, the interface is nothing special, but you can work around it. It's somewhat clunky to play. I eventually got used to it, and though it definitely doesn't play as smoothly as the Doom it hopes to replicate, it's still manageable. The fact that the controls are far from ideal means you actually have to play more tactically. You can't go guns blazing. Occasionally there's the large arena like the sewers level you showed, and I definitely had a lot of fun frantically running around the place dodging those projectiles. For the most part though, because you're usually in tight corridors without much maneuverability (and maybe you can attribute that to being a geeky, unathletic kid), the game teaches you patience. The focus is on exploration & careful navigation, as a maze should do. However, I will concede that I am personally an extremely patient person. Most people could be forgiven for passing on this game due to the clunky controls & "edutainmenty" switch from action to a grammar test. I'm probably in a very small minority that can appreciate the challenge of lackluster controls and forgive the pace-changing of the actual education part to really enjoy the joke it always was. Having been able to appreciate it, I think there's actual potential to make something out of this with a remake or sequel if you improve the controls. The license would obviously be cheap as free to pick up. It wouldn't be too hard to reimagine it with better game design and keep the joke. In the end, I'll agree it's a really hard game to recommend. It's got a super-niche audience, especially now. I recognize this is the internet and I'll get flamed hard for this, but I still have a place in my heart for Gnorris the Gnome.

I'm surprised this wasn't on CDi

Honestly, I. M. Meen's voice actor definitely had fun voicing this guy you can tell, especially with his song in the beginning. I don't think this game is too bad, I had fun with it when I played it.

For a LONG time, I actually thought the cutsceenes from this were actually part of the CDi Zelda games! Now knowing that they were done by the same people it makes sense.

I.M. Suffering from a devastating injury

Blizzard must've been terrified of who they were working with when they saw THIS as part of their portfolio.

I think the problem with Animation Magic's animation is that it looks like it was composed directly as pixel art, rather than using the more common method of drawing traditional cels and then scanning them in. So there's far less detail in the artwork than in traditional animation, making it look sloppy and cheap.

"...although why someone who hates children and learning would become a librarian is beyond me." Well, maybe he wanted to destroy the system from the inside.

nice of i.m. meen to invite us over for a picnic, eh lgr?

i.m. meme

I wonder whats for DINER?

When I saw the thumbnail it directly put me in a nostalgic trip back to 2007.

BEcAUSE RU-vid IS WHERE THE poop IS!.. WE WE WE WE WE WHEEEEZEEEE... !

Oh dear God I'm having Zelda cdi flash backs

Meen reminds me of an even more insane Rick from Rick and Morty.

That video image tag made me believe that LGR made a youtube poop.

Edutainment Month 2016 IT BEGINS

I can’t stop myself from saying it.. lamp oil,rope,bombs? You want it? It’s yours my friend

I didn't know anything about this game prior, but the moment I saw the animations I just KNEW this was from the folks behind CD-I Zeldas. It's just unmistakable.

I remember watching a report on my local news station about the DooM craze when I was little and it talked about a "Doom for kids" and showed a few seconds of a fps where youre killing giant spiders and Ive wondered what game they were showing ever since, this must be it?!

Mr Meem himself is way creepier than any bloodshed on any game ver.

God that 60 frames a second is glorious

To quote Jim Sterling, "Is this memes?"

Re: the engine, raycasting is a really easy algorithm to implement (and fun too - I wrote a raycaster in a few days a couple years ago for kicks) so I. M. Meen very likely doesn't use a licensed engine.

My childhood. Oh, I meant the youtube poops. The game was average at best...

Well, it makes sense that Zelda CDI and I M Meen were done by the same studio. I can't wait to see I M Meen in Smash.

Another video suggested to me because I watched the WayneRadioTV stream but I never know that you cover this game before,

Goodie Goodies! Zeedookiedook!

Wait WHAT?! DODGE a bullet?? Warcraft adventures looked and sounded amazing! The gameplay on youtube has amazing atmosphere, calm drawn out notes combined with the environment sounds that really shape and paint the world through you hearing. The animation looked fun and simple yet unique and I loved it. Small things like the goblin pilot giving a thumbs up while saying: Oh no, oh no it's worse than we thought, this design is brilliant! And the two headed ogre's fabulous pose when in front of a piece of meat you place over a fire, also the goblin in the tinkerer shop who I love a lot. I couldn't guess they made that animation at all, sad these guys and the humungus entertainment animators never got to do more :,(

Whenever I saw clips from this game I always assumed I M Mean was just some character from one of the Zelda CDi games. Little did I know he had an entire game made about him

I was literally about to say "looks like the cdi Zelda games" and then you said it lol

No. Seriously. You said the word poop. I am going to get that one clip, and repeat it all night to help me go to sleep. Thanks LGR.

he knows about ytp ya

This should get a remake. I absolutely love Meen.

It's been so long since I've made anything YTP related with I.M. Meen; where has the time gone??

IM Meen never quits! You'll see! (Kinda, if you also consider doing Chill Manor as well.)

Is it bad that I use this game as an example of gamification in education? I mean, you learn grammar so you can advance the plot and beat up some baddies!

My shit sails in the morning! I wonder what's for dinner?

When you say "It's a dull, tedious grind to play" your character even looks bored. Thank you for this video on a game I did not know existed X_x

OMG this thing is a meme goldmine.

As soon as you said "RU-vid Poop" all I could think of was this video someone made out of your Katy Perry Sweet Treats review. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--YZIqWjsPsU.html

I.M. Meen: Oh look, what clever reviewer! See him play, review and post it. How love that goodie-goodie. He he makes my heart happy!

Finally, I get to watch your video! I was working on a review of this, but I didn't want to get influenced. Which was hard to do, cause I love your channel. Looks like you didn't enjoy the game too much. LOL, yeah it's pretty rough going. I dragged myself to the finish line and was able to beat it after much personal convincing. You didn't miss much, aside from new levels, recycled bad guys, and more scroll reading material. I will say that the scrolls get better and better the further you play. There's a lot of backstory to pick up on that fleshes out our evil little friend, Meen. Reading all the scrolls is fun, and it's the only thing I'd recommend out of this game aside from the glorious animations. I played some of Chill Manor but the game crashed on me at level two... so yeah, hard to say if that game is any better. It certainly feels like they tried to improve things! The sleepy kids crack me up. Thanks for giving Meen some love with the video! DOS games always need more attention!

i hope other people have already mentioned this but... IS THAT GUY'S FUCKIN VOICE DOUBLE-D FROM ED EDD N EDDY??? LOL

I think the animations have their own charm to it :)

1:16 why’s the villain so disconnected from the idea of evil and reality, why’s the singing just some one screaming, why’s the animation downscaled then zoomed in like they couldn’t get it to be in the correct resolution and needed to fix it but weren’t allowed to, and WHY IS THE WIRD HATE FROM A DIFFERENT TAKE dur to its different voice and tone, did the actor mess up or something.

The funny thing is this boy is probably stronger than Doomguy, considering he could punch monsters to death without a berserk power up

"Something is off with their animated style" No shading. All there images, in every game, had bright palettes and no shading so you would look at the images and you would know what they are supposed to be but your mind knows something is wrong (like uncanny valley) and its the lack of shadows, ANYWHERE. Even when he is stepping on the books his feet cast no shadows and its noticable on a subconcious level.

Saw LGR did a review of I.M. Meen. Hoped for some reference to YTP. Instant gratification.

Honestly, the cut scenes are quite the improvement on the Zelda CD-i games. I. M. Meen himself isn't nearly as amorphous as Ganon, and he's not doing gross stuff like wiping his nose with his knee, or doing that ugly fish-eye lens mugging that Morshu does which makes him look like he should be singing some horrible rap about the items he has for sale.

Shame, game looks pretty good, graphics wise. Not enough developers put so much effort in the art and animation. I am sure if I was given the choice between this game and normal class, I'd be fine playing this.

He hates Veggietales!

Baldis basics origin

2:45 I will say that you don't need to like books and learning to be a librarian. I used to volunteer behind the counter of the library in high school, and literally you just need to know where to find a general section of books and give it to the one checking it out, yet I only had a mild interest in reading books (though I did like the Redwall novels), and well...since when is high school about learning? XD

I remember discovering I.M. Meen through TorNis7's YTPs back in 2009.

Have you covered any Leap Frog or JumpStart games?

Well, my bus driver hated children.

"i'm meme" the penultimate ytp title of 2008

6:00 rouxls kaard also says that, TOBY YOU LAZY GENIUS

I always thought this was part of the Legend Of Zelda CDI series

I Love your channel, the odder and thrifts is what got me hooked. BUT I love your old school game reviews. I recently have become interested in the apple 2gs after seeing your video on it. I have even started buying apple 2gs games even though I don't have an apple 2gs, but I'm looking for one atm. I was wondering if you could do some game reviews for the apple 2gs. I just got "Legacy of the Ancients" in folio, perhaps you have it or have heard of it? would love to see someone play this as I have no means to play it and I don't like emulators. Thank you

the game seems like it would be a lot better if they cut out a majority of the levels, turning it from 36 to 9, equaling a full Wolf 3D episode or so. the game would've been shorter, but it'd be different with enough variety since the wall-textures and enemies would change between every level.

Shout out to Tubers93 for referencing this legendary game in his hacking of Meepcity

As a teacher, I loved using this in dosbox when I taught 5th grade English.

DAMN YOU ANIMATION MAGIC!!!!

CD-i Zelda is back?

How would you compare this to Super 3D Noah's Ark? I know they are clones of two different early 90s shooters from id Software, but I still thought I ask anyway!

the virgin baldi *THE CHAD IM MEEN*

this brings me back to the early days of youtube

Oh yeah, gotta love me some LGR Edutainment goodness. Hoping you'll finally get to the Humongous Entertainment or Living Books games this year.

I really really like the animation style of Animation Magic's work for some reason. I wish they still existed and made stuff

I don't think it's quite as bad as you make it out to be -- no more boring than Wolf3d anyway. I think it mixes action games and education a lot better than most edutainment, which is usually just pretending to be some kind of game. Here it IS a game, and tries to introduce the educational aspect as part of the plot. I'd rather be playing this than Sonic's Schoolhouse, that's for sure.

i thought this was a Philips game

When Meen says "Frightened? Confused? GOOD HAHAHA" I think he was channeling the head Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine.

Hurrah, Edutainment Month! All the humour and half the saturated fat! No, I don't know what I'm on about! ::lazy eye wanders off::

Am I the only person who thinks this animation style WORKS with this game while it was terrible in Zelda and Mario? The animation in those games felt stilted, likely because their established worlds had...SOME grounds in reality. Here, fuck it, magic librarian sucks you in a book because why not, and the character designs and animations help accomodate the wackier story.

Odd, looking game, nice detail though not sure about the gameplay itself. Hey, I remember you looked at Cho Aniki for the PC Engine CD, ever think of looking at the PS1 version? That one is seriously bizarre in the details it has in it.

I love I.M. Meen

Ah I remember RU-vid Poop. Some of them were hilarious back in 2007-2008. Here's my favorite I M Meen one. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Oiki9dzT7To.html

The kid is Doom Guy when he was young!

I never had any clue what sort of game lied behind the cutscenes and now I do. Any plans for an Alien Tales episode?

I knew that animation looked familiar before you said it was animation magic!

I found a demo disc (or shareware I guess) of this game today at the flea market. I was curious if it was a wise decision to not buy it, and thank you for confirming my suspicions lmao

To me, the game seems to be based on the engine used for Shadowcaster (Which, if I'm correct, is a modified version of the Wolf3d engine).

FINALLY! It's about time you did this one. I did like the edutainment part of this game just fine, but the core gameplay mechanics could be a lot better. IMO. Of course, the infamous cutscenes steal the show. I like how I.M. Meen's voice actor put his all into his performance, even though the overall premise is kinda meh. That takes skill and dedication.

God this stupid game. I remember my friend's parents kicking us off his computer so his little sister could play this game.

Oh look what clever review, see it upload, watch it stream, How I hate those RU-vid comments, how they make my stomach turn!

Honestly at the beginning where he pulls out I am mean it looked like I was watching an Angry Video Game Nerd episode

Another game I didn't know existed. Lots to learn! =) Now I know whom to blame for KQVII's awful, jumpy animations. An outside company drawing the animations clarifies the reason for Rosella's number of fingers being inconsistent.

You know, I personally don't find the animation awful, just REALLY low-res and lacking detail. It seems better drawn than what ever the Zelda games tried to achieve and HOLY CRAP that pixel art in-game! It's excellently well done! Game still looks boring as sin but I think the artist did a decent job.

I.M. Meen: the way to put your kid to sleep and give them horribly animated nightmares in one, easy to use step.