Tex Bonaventure and the Temple of the Water of Life

Very cute. This was a fairly old-schoolish puzzle-fest: some neat, if implausible, puzzle situations; quite a bit of humour, but not too hung up about the story. The story is really all premise, anyway.

I'd say the puzzles are the strongest point of the game, with the bright, cheery tone a close second. They're mostly quite straightforward. I thought the timing for the flame-broil barbecue death trap was a little too generous, but the fact that you could use the puzzle itself to solve another later puzzle was a good use of economy. The second puzzle with the gun was, perhaps, a little off: it's the sort of thing one might stumble upon after much time running at brick walls, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. In the first place, there is precedent for this precise puzzle, in "Beyond Zork"; and in the second place, well, we don't really want our puzzle solutions to be spoon-fed to us when we're playing what is clearly a primarily puzzle-oriented game, do we?

Smoked ham and baked beans on toast. Strong, black coffee and pulpy orange juice.