[Contero]

I think Machinarium is a good example of how you can preserve the fun frustration of adventure games without pushing people to cheat. They would allow you to play a mini-game in order to reveal some extra hints which would push you in the right direction enough to figure out the rest on your own.

In Monkey Island I would sometimes get annoyed and google for what to do out of angry frustration. It was easy for me to throw my hands up and say "I don't give a shit any more, time to move on!" Lots of times the solutions made zero sense to me. In Machinarium I still got a sense of frustration and puzzlement, but I would try to forego the hints out of pride for as long as I could which made for a much more enjoyable experience.

[ricardobeat]

You mean Altavista?

[m_mueller]

Machinarium's gameplay could (and should) be pretty much copy pasted onto lots of adventure games, both remakes and new ones. It's just perfect. I hope Amanita goes back to that franchise, there's still a lot that could be explored there.

[lobster_johnson]

I really liked the puzzle difficulty with Machinarium. I think I had to use the hints system once for one of the particularly difficult puzzles. Great game.