Bah. The ability to solve an adventure game has little to do with intelligence. Here's why:
1. You have to realize that there is a puzzle to be solved. Sometimes this is obvious (e.g. a panel of buttons), but quite often the hints are subtle. Sometimes they are so subtle that you may think nothing of them. For example: you don't realize that a puzzle exists until you realize that you are not making progress in the game.
2. You have to figure out the nature of the puzzle. If the puzzle is presented straight up. This may be obvious, either with the puzzle clearly stated or something you can figure out by trial and error. In other cases it may be hard to figure out the nature of the puzzle. For example, you may understand that you are not making progress because you cannot find a hidden passage, but you need to recognize the puzzle that allows you to unlock the passage first.
3. Finding a solution to the puzzle. This is (arguably) the only one that implies any form of intelligence because it involves a problem solving process.
Another hitch with adventure games are limitations in the user interface. In a text adventure game, there may be literary or linguistic references that you do not understand. In a graphical adventure game, a graphical element may not give an obvious clue as to another passage or where stuff is hidden (which leads to ransacking rooms, or pixel hunting).
1. You have to realize that there is a puzzle to be solved. Sometimes this is obvious (e.g. a panel of buttons), but quite often the hints are subtle. Sometimes they are so subtle that you may think nothing of them. For example: you don't realize that a puzzle exists until you realize that you are not making progress in the game.
2. You have to figure out the nature of the puzzle. If the puzzle is presented straight up. This may be obvious, either with the puzzle clearly stated or something you can figure out by trial and error. In other cases it may be hard to figure out the nature of the puzzle. For example, you may understand that you are not making progress because you cannot find a hidden passage, but you need to recognize the puzzle that allows you to unlock the passage first.
3. Finding a solution to the puzzle. This is (arguably) the only one that implies any form of intelligence because it involves a problem solving process.
Another hitch with adventure games are limitations in the user interface. In a text adventure game, there may be literary or linguistic references that you do not understand. In a graphical adventure game, a graphical element may not give an obvious clue as to another passage or where stuff is hidden (which leads to ransacking rooms, or pixel hunting).