Bone: Out from Boneville

Bone Feels A lot like the Disney films of yore, in which mice would eat breadcrumbs at the start and sing "zipedy-do-dah"! It creates a warm feeling that doesn't provide belly-laughs, but at least fixes you up with a permanent half-grin. Bone is a cutesy-pie adventure in which tasks are as vital as chopping wood, picking apples and playing hide and seek with small shrews: hardly edge-of-the-seat stuff. But the dialogue of Fone Bone (hero), Phoney Bone (brother and grumpy antagonist) and Smiley Bone (brother and itinerant songstrel) crackles with warmth and neat dialogue trees that expand the characters of the nubbinnosed ones with great dexterity.

Thing is though, episodic as it may be, this is two hours of entertainment being sold off for $20 which, despite the fuzziness, is a total rip-off for two hours of play. What's more, punctuating all the stomping and the shrew-play are some of the worst attempts at mini-games ever. subFlash and sub-normal, the hardest thing about sections like the 'running from bees' game is attempting to not stab your own eyes out...

Is the irreverence of Sam & Max safe in the hands of TellTale? Yes, indubitably. Will the team have to pull their socks up? Well, maybe if they use that string over there on that winch and attach it to the lip of the sock and...

I No Matter how abused genres and licences may be, the talent behind them never goes away. Such, we hope, is the case with the Freelance Police developers now at TellTale games, and their newfound mascot Fone Bone - the famed (in certain circles) comic book creation of one Jeff Smith. Now we'd never heard of this little chap, so we gave Dan Connors (CEO of the TellTale enclave) a poke to find out more.

It's the story of three cousins from a place called Boneville, who find themselves lost in a mysterious valley brimming with fantasy elements and humour," says Connors of his good-natured. mouse-driven adventure. Fone Bone is the story's main protagonist. He has a good heart and a sense of responsibility to his friends and family. Nonetheless, he comes into this new land, finds himself in over his head and has to figure out his place. Seeing as it becomes apparent that Fone is initially armed with only a well-thumbed copy of Moby Dick for support, you can tell that the game is going to be a little eccentric. As you would expect of a tale about a skeletal moomin family, there's some fairly odd and subversive humour going on here - even if it will never match the same brand of anarchy as Sam & Max. The plan is for Fone Bone's bizarre world to move beyond the strict confines of the point and clickers of old. while still having all the puzzles, dialogue and basic action elements that adventure fans know and love.

Working on Star Wars throughout the years I learned to appreciate a deep licence, and I think Bone has some similar qualities, says Connors, elaborating on what makes Bone such ripe territory for a game. But seeing as we're called TellTale, we are also very interested ;in the storytelling. Jeff Smith has managed to craft a story that has an ageless appeal to it, and stories like that are few and far between. Due for independent digital distribution, the self-publishing of Sone could provide fresh legs for the ever-endangered (yet doggedly persistent) adventuring genre. We like it, and not just because of Bone's cute nubbin nose.