Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

Upon release, it received mixed contemporary and retrospective reviews, with critics faulting the game's lack of interactivity, difficult puzzles, and bugs that prevented completion of the game.

• Title — Monty Python's The Meaning of Life • Developer — 7th Level • Director — Steve Martino • Producer — Robert Ezrin • Writer — Bart Jennett • Released — December 1997 • Genre — Adventure • Modes — Single player • Platforms — Windows

• Illustration — Gameplay screenshot The Meaning of Life is an adventure video game in which players navigate scenes with a 360 degree field of view over eight chapters of gameplay. The game is split across multiple discs into three stages across eight chapters: Life, Afterlife, and The Cottage, and use a radial menu named the "Wheel of Life" to select a chapter from the main menu. Life is set as a retelling of the film of the same name, consisting of interactive scenes including animation and full motion video based on content from the film. The Afterlife stage consists of new content designed for the game across three sub-levels, named Material, Spiritual, and Dental. The Cottage consists of the player navigating the summer home of Terry Gilliam and completing puzzles within. Players navigate and interact with scenes by using point and click controls to select interactive objects or people, which animate and progress the game to new areas. Across chapters, players must collect seven objects that, when combined, complete the game and purport to reveal the meaning of life. The game features several minigames interspersed between stages, including You Don't Know John, a trivia game and parody of You Don't Know Jack, in which players must match historical figures to comedic descriptions. The game features the full voice cast of Monty Python actors John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

The Meaning of Life was developed by Richardson, Texas based development studio 7th Level, and the third in a trilogy of Monty Python-themed titles after Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time and Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail. Following a period of poor commercial performance and contraction, 7th Level announced at Comdex that the company intended to sell distribution rights to the title, which was acquired by Take Two Software, who retained European distribution rights and sold North American rights to Panasonic Interactive Media. 7th Level showcased the game at E3 1997. Terry Gilliam was an executive producer.