Gilbert Goodmate and The Mushroom of Phungoria.

                   Played by Peter Clark

Many years ago, an evil wizard lived in his castle near the town
of Phungoria. His name was Karn and he was definitely not nice.
Many people, over the years, had tried to rid the land of Karn and
failed until a young lad called Marvin decided, with his arm
twisted behind his back, to make another attempt to get rid of
him. Somehow he managed to do this with the aid of a large
mushroom. From that day on, the mushroom was given a place of
honour in the town and each year one man was given the job of
looking after it. A mushroom festival was held each year when the
mushroom guardian was changed.

This story is about a chap called Gilbert Goodmate and his
grandfather Abraham whose task has been to guard the mushroom
during the last year. There is only one week left before the
annual mushroom festival when the mushroom is stolen. Abraham is
thrown into prison and sentenced to be executed during the
mushroom festival. Gilbert must find the mushroom thief and return
the sacred mushroom to the town before the end of the week or
granddad meets his fate.

This game is of the cartoon genre similar to the original Monkey
Island games. Control is through the mouse and the normal Save and
Load facilities are available. The game played easily and well on
a Pentium 3 - 700Mhz using the full screen and with a full
installation.

Gilbert is on good terms with Princess Michelle, the daughter of
the King. She is strong-willed while he father, the King, is a bit
lily livered. Gilbert's first task is to impersonate the King and
gain extra time to complete his task. Of course there are the
usual objects to be found before the disguise can be used and
Gilbert finds himself running about all over Phungoria before the
necessary objects are obtained and the impersonation carried out.
Initially he will need to talk to Saul, the shoemaker and the old
sailor on the docks. A secret agent watches your moves here and
some dialogue is necessary with him to gain vital clues and
objects. In the town, you will also need to talk to Arver who is
the local hypochondriac. Conversations are vital with both the
Blacksmith and Madame Zyz, the town fortune- teller. A visit to
Elton's house who is an inventor is a must as is talking to the
lady on the balcony to acquire her smalls from the washing line.
Finally a very long chat with the farmer should get you the final
part of the disguise and extra time can be gained to clear your
grandfather.

You should now have enough evidence as to the identity of the
mushroom thief and find it necessary to travel to a distant
island. A visit to the Inn and a chat with the local boat owner
will uncover just what you need to pay for a boat. To get this
object another string of visits to the town and surrounding area
are necessary. Larry has a shop in the caves but needs a lot of
cash for his wares. The Vikings have a Treasure Tower so a visit
there might prove useful if you can get past the guard. A good
turn has to be done for the travelling quack doctor and assistance
given to the gentleman who lives under a bridge and drinks tea
before Elton's Time Machine and Barry's Generosity Potion can be
used to get the object that the boat owner wants before he will
let you have the means to go to the island.

On the island you meet Elton again who seems to have had an
accident with his Time Machine and has got stuck on the island.
You will have to help him escape and go with him.  Firstly you
must sort out the pirates who are busily treasure hunting. Both
the Pirate Captain and his cook need to be interacted with before
you can get into the caves.

Here you have the only two real "puzzles" in the game. The first
is of the slider variety and you have to complete a picture of,
guess what?" a mushroom before your way is clear into the next
cave. A swing bridge has to put into position and filling and
emptying buckets is the way to do it. On the far side you run into
the mushroom thief and, I won't tell you what happens, but, if you
have found what Elton needs for the raft, you finish up on the
raft with him. Unfortunately, all is not well with the raft and
after having to swim for it, you are captured by Vikings and sent
to the local Slave Market.

Escape from here is a little complicated and will involve, among
other things, removing hair from the legs of a rather effeminate
Viking. An Indian Chief makes an appearance and Arver, the
hypochondriac, re-appears. You will have to find a way of making
sure that you are not sold as a slave and then avoid execution
before returning to Phungoria, rescuing Princess Michelle and
freeing your grandfather.

All told this is a very light-hearted game based on the "find
something and use it with something or swap it for something else"
sort of game. The puzzles are not very difficult in themselves but
some need a little lateral thinking. The only two real puzzles as
such are the two in the caves on the island but even these are not
terribly mind-boggling.  I have really only two criticisms of the
game. There are several parts where failing to complete a quite
small action will prevent something important happening later.
Some of these "triggers" are contained in conversations and this
is my second gripe. Many conversations seem to go on forever and
you can be tempted to skip them thus, in some cases, failing to
trip one of the "triggers." I spent a long time trying to find a
napkin in the Inn that hadn't appeared as I had missed such an
action. There is a lot of humour contained in the responses of the
characters but I did feel that this was often overdone and could
have been cut short. However, that said, I would recommend this
game for those of you who like light-hearted games that are not
too taxing or may be as a break from games containing "Myst" type
puzzles.











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