Gilbert Goodmate and the Mushroom of Phungoria Preview

All right, we got another nice adventure coming... Pirates, tall, skinny, cartoonish, and a bit funny looking guy, by the name of G... no, don't rush it... don't be hasty... As much as everything points to a very interesting and famous character, Guybrush Threepwood, there is a slight difference. The geezer has no connection whatsoever with the Caribbeans, and his name is (and he does have a stupid name) Gilbert Goodmate.

It's a sad thing, what the 3D revolution has done to the computer games. I consider myself an old fashion kinda guy in that department, who murmured something like "Hmmm, well it's kind of... Er... interesting ?" first time I saw them, and then went back to good old 2D adventure and platforms. Things have involuntarily changed, so my initial 2D adventure genre point of view provoked a totally new reaction " Hey, don't you think that these guys are a little lost in time?". Shame on me...

Anyway, its not so strange that the programmers of the Swedish company Prelusion decided on the 2D approach. The way I see it, when they where starting off, 3D was unheard of. Just kidding! But note that the game is in the development stage for some 4 years now. All that work, and over a mushroom...

A long time ago, a distant land was ruled by Karn, the ever so powerful and most evil wizard, who's only wish was to conquer the world. Many a warrior tried to defeat him and save the world, but alas... Until many years later, a young man appeared with his mushroom (I mean a real mushroom, a fungus ) who managed where others have failed.

The people of this country have, in the nearby city of Phungoria erected an enormous mushroom, and picked one week of the year when this event is celebrated. There is also one citizen chosen to guard the Pride and Joy of the city for the whole year, with his life if necessary. Las year, that honour has been given to Gilbert's grandfather, but unfortunately, a week before the traditional city festivities, the mushroom disappeared. The authorities incarcerated the old man, but to add to the festive spirit, decided to publicly execute him soon afterwards. Gilbert is his only hope... But only if he finds the mushroom and the thief by the end of the week.

To make things worse, Gilbert can't be trusted... Wit and charm are just about his only two virtues. Otherwise, he has kleptomanic tendencies (he likes to steal, man!). In this case, the most important thing is that he has good will, and a burning desire to save his grandfather. From the 50 characters that Gilbert encounters and interacts, the sassiest one by far is the princess Michelle. It's a girl (a blonde) of strong character and even stronger will. The people love her, and look forward to the day she will take reign, because the girl has issues. Other characters, apart from the mysterious soothsayer Madam Zyz and the cross-dressing Viking Helga Sonordottir, aren't so "busty" (interesting?) : hypochondriac Arver, inventor Elton, The Genie With The Long Name, Sheriff, and the nasty ones like the Nerdy Pirates.

The plot takes a vicious turn. The Swedish have announced a detailed and rich story with a bunch of sub-plots. There are more than 20 000 humour-laced lines, and professional actors read them. The world of Phungoria is well done and in a colourful, cartoonish manner, and all locations are hand-animated and rendered in 16-bit colour. The in-game is interleaved of 6000 frames of animation. The graphics reminded me the most of Simon the Sorcerer.

There was a little doubt who is it going to be, but its almost certain that the publisher of this juicy 2D adventure is Crystal Software. This game will be released by the and of this year on PC and-you will never guess-Amiga... Strange, huh? If you belong to the latter users, expect very modest system requirements: 133 Hz Pentium, 32 MB RAM and 50 Mb HD space.

"They say the adventure games are dead. What mushrooms are they on?"