Monty Python’s Invasion from the Planet Skyron

Developer(s): Daedalus CD-i Productions
Publisher: Philips Interactive Media
Released: 1995

Monty Python’s Invasion from the Planet Skyron is a “puzzle” game with nine “levels” of “interactive” “fun”. Based on the classic British TV sketch show, you control a cluster of five Pythons in tuxedos (no Terry Gilliam, but he does pop up here and there, and of course his cartoons form the entire basis of the game’s aesthetic) as they wander through bizarre dreamscapes full of episode references and clip art. With your cursor, you can click on various objects, which may or may not react to being clicked on.

Most of the time clicking on something will just cause some random animation or event to occur. Sometimes the event “kills” you and resets your progress through the stage. There’s no way to know what will cause you to advance, so there’s nothing to try to do besides click on everything and hope for the best. You’ll hear the same voice samples and see the same short video clips over and over and over again, even within a few minutes. Sometimes you’ll be taken away to a minigame, which is usually a Memory puzzle, but may also be something random like hitting mice with a hammer or putting your finger up your nose. One level gives you a sliding tile puzzle that I spent 45 minutes on before grabbing my laptop and trying to use a “sliding tile puzzle solver” to get through it, only to be told that the puzzle was literally unsolvable. So that was great. At least it turned out to be optional.

As you play, a sheep follows you around with a counter embedded in it. Sometimes your points go up, and sometimes they go down. If you click on the sheep you can spend your points to buy a random sketch, with the larger point values delivering longer sketches. The sketch plays immediately, so it’s not like you unlock it for on-demand viewing. Most of the minigames you play take points away as you go, for example the sliding tile puzzle was worth -999 points by the time I gave up on it, but even just clicking around I usually had enough points to at least buy a short sketch with.

I should clarify here that I’m a Monty Python fan. I grew up loving sketch comedies and have seen every episode of Monty Python multiple times over, and recognized all the references, even years later. But this game is not fun and not funny. There are truly no goals or objectives here, and seeing moments from sketches diced up into tiny references robs them of their power. The endless repetition doesn’t help either. There’s one minigame that plays quotes from the show and asks you to identify which Python said them, and even within this one minigame it will play the same handful of dialogue clips three or four times each.

This may have played better in 1995, when clips of Monty Python were not so readily available on the Internet, and the idea of seeing a thing you loved quoted endlessly back at you might seem like a fun novelty, as opposed to just the way things are now. Experiencing Monty Python’s Invasion from the Planet Skyron in the year 2020 is an exercise in tedium, occasionally alleviated by a classic sketch played in full that you purchased from a sheep.

Graphics – 7
The videos are actually full-screen and look rather good, but the levels are carelessly thrown together and ugly

Sound – 8
Essentially a desktop folder called MONTY PYTHON WAVS but those sure are clips of Monty Python

Gameplay – 3
Repetitive, basic minigames, including possibly unwinnable sliding tile puzzles, and even the simple clicking around doesn’t feel responsive enough

Value – 5
If you’re not planning a review, you will get bored of this game and stop playing it before you’ve seen all the levels

Reviewer’s Tilt – 4
I love Monty Python, and this is a bad way to experience Monty Python

Final Score – 4.7