I enjoy these annual lampoonings of classic ZZT worlds, though it's definitely tougher now that you've through a lot of the iconic "good" ones. Neither Best of ZZT game is all that exciting today, so this is another instance of the troll game being generally kinder.

The drum blaster screen was a fun surprise. I like how the already joke of a weapon from the original was transformed into something wildly different. I also felt the most confident that I knew what people were talking about in these games for once. I've seen some Sailor Moon now. I've watched Cowboy Bebop. I have a basic understanding of these things!

The trivia was great, and I absolutely would have gone to look up the video(s) had I not been streaming. Asking me stupidly specific trivia that has an obvious place to look for the answer only for me to realize that it's not actually helpful to look up is a real powerful trick to play on someone.

I'm also going to be thinking about what it says about me that I saw some centipedes, squinted, and immediately realized what was going on. It's also funny to me that I thought of The Three Trials version of the gag and not the one from the game being parodied.

I think this is the best La Vie yet, though with these criteria for judging I have no idea if the scores will reflect that opinion.

Okay, so this is the first ZZT game I've ever streamed on twitch, and I greatly appreciated all the strange dialog to navigate in the process. That was super fun!

After watching Dos stream the game, it became clear to me that I definitely missed a lot of the references and probably some of the humor notes this game was hitting that Dos seemed to get. Here's my rubric breakdown:

Stupidest: While all oktrollber games hit stupid notes or have a stupid theme, this game weaves stupidity through its narrative.

DSTC / Funniest: Again, I probably missed some of the references here that led to greater humor, but so I'll give you a positive rating in good faith. Good work probably!

Best Animals: Points for the lions that, when shot, say "AUUGHH!"

Love the very Snorbery sense of humor! Do not love the damn arena and not having enough ammo but TBF, that's a troll! I like the bouncy castle a lot and I like the stupid wizard! Really nice PS art boards at the end, too! Fun stuff and while it's kinda longish, it's not TOO long either. Another fun La Vie!

I was able to beat sections of this game through rampant use of ?health, ?ammo, ?-dark, and ?zap, but kept getting softlocked by bad save timing in rooms that seemed to want to kill me via dialogue choices. I even opened up YouTube to try and solve part of this game—what ZZT game these days doesn't just load up YouTube itself? As an Initiate to the La Vie series, part V might not be the place to start, but I enjoyed the colourful characters and intricate board design, a lot of light WEAVEry takes the classic castle vibes to bright new heights.

STUPID: Me, I guess! I couldn't figure out how to get gems, ammo, or torches—well trolled.

DSTC: Wasn't prepared for the amount of save/restore or desperate cheat entry

FUNNY: Yes

ANIMALS: ♤

In the name of the moon, I think this is pretty swell.