Gilbert Goodmate and the Mushroom of Phungoria

If I tell you that Gilbert Goodmate Is a point-and-click adventure in 2D trying to recapture the glories of Monkey Island, there's a reasonable chance some of you will get excited and want to know more. If I also add that its subtitle is And The Mushroom Of Phungoria and that it comes all the way from Sweden, you'll begin to understand that there's very little to get excited about.

The plot should be more than enough to convince you of that. Your grandfather is the keeper of the sacred Mushroom Of Phungoria and is set to be executed after the mushroom is stolen. Needless to say, you have to recover it, and win the heart of the princess in the process.

Gilbert Goodmate is a painfully unfunny game trying as hard as it can to be funny. It isn't helped by some very out-of-date (by about five years) graphics, some weak jokes and some tired old puzzles. The plot develops without any surprises and there are absolutely no incentives whatsoever to try and solve the next puzzle.

The interface doesn't do much to encourage you either, the simple mouse clicks are designed in such a way that you keep bringing up the inventory when you want to look at an object and then spend the next 20 seconds trying to get back to the game. I like mushrooms as much as the next person, but there are obvious limits to their comic potential. As for the recurring crossdressing-viking theme, I can only assume that it's a source of great hilarity among Swedes. Shame that it leaves the rest of us gritting our teeth.

For the makers of Gilbert this was clearly a labour of love, but you can't substitute talent, quality and technology with good intentions.