GILBERT GOODMATE AND THE MUSHROOM OF FUNGORIA Reviewed by Stefan Herber And now for something completely different ... not (With apologies to Bill and Ted as well as Monty Python.). I suppose the strangest thing about this game was that it was made at all. A 2-D straightforward adventure game with no arcade sequences, no fighting at all and a convoluted storyline with many illogical puzzles - doesn't that sound like something circa 1992? Well whatever time warp the Swedish developers have been in I suppose it comes as a pleasant surprise that this game was bankrolled even if it's something of a d‚j… vu experience. And - sadly - that's all the positives that it's possible to say about this. Heavily influenced by "Monkey Island" to the extent that the lead character even resembles our old friend Guybush Threepwood it unfortunately picks everything about those games that I hated and adds a few more. The humour is puerile in the extreme. The characters are Guybush rejects and the puzzles are to put it mildly obscure. But the worst feature of all is the endless dialogue sequences. It's quite possible for a conversation with its 25 odd options to last 15 minutes; if the humour was acceptable this might just be tolerable but I can't think of one sequence that even had me smiling although a lot had me squirming. If one needs an example: please can I have that item; please please can I have that item; please please PLEASE can I have that item and so on ad nauseum. I almost gave up on it for that reason alone. Horror of horrors is that one major plot element is deliberately ignored until the very end when instead of it being the obvious trigger for a grand finale it is shunted aside in the promise of a sequel. I shall really have to be in a masochistic mood to subject myself to that! I really think there's still life in the point and click adventure but it's far too late to try and emulate "Monkey Island 2" these days. If you want nostalgia replay that and leave this annoying claptrap alone. - o -