Simon the Sorcerer

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A series of five adventure games in the which the protagonist, an obnoxious, misogynistic teenager from our universe, gets sucked into another universe by the good wizard Calypso to fight the evil wizard Sordid.

The games include parodies of various popular books and fairy tales, including Rapunzel, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Jack and the Beanstalk and the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

The first game was about as well received as the Monkey Island games at the time getting scores in the 90% area.

Simon is voiced in this game by Chris Barrie, known for his roles in Red Dwarf and The Brittas Empire.

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Simon the Sorcerer franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.
  • Adaptation Dye Job: Simon in Simon the Sorcerer 3D has black hair instead of the usual brown.
  • Adventure Narrator Syndrome: Several distinct lines including when you Use Crowbar on any person: "Very tempting and very illegal", pick up any person: "I prefer blondes", and eat anything not meant to be eaten: "That is not part of a balanced diet".
    • It's interesting to note that, if you want to pick up a blond girl, you get a different response, usually something on the lines of "Not my type" or "She wouldn't like that".
  • Bag of Holding: Simon's hat can hold such things as barrels and ladders.
    • IN HIS FREAKING HAT!
  • Deadpan Snarker: Simon himself. "Oh sure, I'll just tear off all these locks and chains with my BARE HANDS!"[1]
  • The Dragon: Runt in the second game.
  • Evil Twin: The ending of the third game introduces a second Simon with a stereotypical Beard of Evil. Fridge Logic kicks in once you realise that Simon himself isn't really a good guy. The sequel reveals that the other Simon is actually his lawful twin.
  • Freaky Friday Flip: The cliffhanger ending to the second game is based around one of these.
  • Game Breaking Bug: In Simon the Sorcerer II, you could type in instructions text adventure style if the objects mentioned are on screen, even if you don't have them in your inventory, skipping large bits of the game.
  • Guide Dang It: In the sequel, you have to wear a puppy.
  • In My Language, That Sounds Like...: The tribal drummer Um Bongo. Apparently, Simon's name means Rabbit's Colon in his tongue.
  • Lampshade Hanging: In spades.
  • Lethal Chef: Swampling. "Eat up your stew!" Hilariously, he has his own fast food restaurant franchise by the second game.
  • Magic Ampersand: In the second game, Simon encounters a group of nerds playing Apartments And Accountants.
  • The Mean Brit: Simon himself. He wouldn't even be the hero of the series if it were up to him.
  • Minor Injury Overreaction: The Barbarian, to a splinter in his foot.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Simon has to find four heroes in the third game so they can help save the world. Three of which he has been personally responsible for being dead, crippled, and a frog.
  • Pixel Hunt: Avoided. Hit F10 and all on screen objects are highlighted.
  • Schizo-Tech: While the games are placed in a mostly medieval-ish setting, there's still automobiles, vacuum cleaners and bad video games.
  • Selective Magnetism: Lampshaded in the first game when Simon points out that the magnet will not work on gold coins as gold is not magnetic, right up to the point when it does.
  • Shapeshifter Showdown: Against the Witch in the first game.
  • Shout-Out: Practically, the games' raison d'être. The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings and The Sword in the Stone are among the most obvious ones.
  • Snowlems: There is one as an advisory, beaten by eating mints.
  • Third Is 3D: Simon the Sorcerer 3D.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: For the dwarves in the first game: beer. This becomes a plot point.
  • Umpteenth Customer: In the second game, a tattooist gives a free tattoo to his 100th customer. Since your character has no money, you need to talk another character to going first so that you can get the tattoo done free.
  1. From the second game, at the Three Bears' house.