Night of the Undead Franchise

Island of the Undead, as written by Keith Martin and first published in 1992, is the fifty-first title in the Fighting Fantasy series, and is one of nine titles from its original 1982-95 lifespan that was never meant to exist at all. The previous title in the series, Return to Firetop Mountain, was meant to be the last, ending the series with a milestone fiftieth title that also doubled as a tenth anniversary celebration. However, the special attention given to the series for what was meant to be its last hurrah caused sales to perk up, and Puffin Books ended up commissioning further titles in the series.

As the series was increasingly playing to a niche audience in the nineties, many of the titles from around this time were increasingly aimed at older readers, offering more sophisticated writing and gameplay... as well as being much, much harder. Island of the Undead, however, seems to offer a more interesting balance; it features some new innovations, including combats which are totally optional but give significant benefits if you choose to do them. It is noticeably less linear than other titles; unlike many other FF books, you can revisit the same location multiple times, with the area changing if you've undertaken certain actions elsewhere. It's a difficult gamebook, but it never manages to feel overly frustrating as other entries in the series from around this period do at times. Was this approach a response to the fact that the series had been given an unexpected stay of execution from its publishers? Or am I just reading too much into things?

Penguin ultimately felt that the increasing difficulty and obscurity of the series in the nineties was a problem, with many of the titles being far too complex for the series' supposed target audience, and that was one of several factors that led to Fighting Fantasy's first demise in 1995. Island of the Undead doesn't seem to be a hugely talked-about gamebook, but I do wonder if other entries in the series had taken their cues from it the series might have lasted a little longer, or possibly never gone out of print in the first place (Lone Wolf, the other major adventure gamebook series of its time, managed to keep going with new adventures until 1998, only four years before Fighting Fantasy's first big relaunch) -- its replay value and optional encounters make it feel like a precursor to the new adventures published by Wizard Books and Scholastic more recently, which manage to be hard, but not too hard. It almost certainly deserves to be talked about far more than it is.

Hopefully, this post will manage that on some level.