Jonny Quest: Curse of the Mayan Warriors

Cartoon specialists Hanna Barbera have finally twigged that theres money to be made out of pc games, and have joined forces with Hollyware Entertainment to produce a computer game based on their cartoon series Jonny Quest. What they havent twigged is that you cant just put together any old tosh and expect people to buy it on the strength of the tv tie-in.

Jonny Quest attempts to combine the puzzle-solving elements of an adventure game with the action elements of a beat em-up. but fails miserably on both counts. Considering the quality of many of the other arcade-adventure games currently on sale, its a bit of an insult to the pc games buying public that they should be expected to even consider buying something that has obviously had very little effort put into producing it.

Nothing to offer

What we have here is a complete catastrophe. Its not unusual to come across games that are lacking in one or more departments, but these games usually have at least one redeeming feature that saves them from becoming a total disaster. Jonny Quest, however, has absolutely nothing going for it.

Forget the silly plot about Jonny and his mate Hadji and their canine companion Bandit running about in Guatemala looking for five lost wonders. The game itself consists of guiding Jonny and co. around a decidedly unattractive playing area, solving puzzles that are so easy they are an insult to the intelligence of anyone clever enough to have loaded the game up in the first place, and fighting baddies every two minutes in combat sequences that will make you laugh aloud the first time you see them. I played the game for about four hours, but in all honesty I was bored brainless after the first 20 minutes. If there is anything of any interest in this game, I certainly didnt come across it.

The animated introductory sequence is about the most exciting part of the whole affair. It fools you into thinking you are about to take part in a cartoon-style arcade adventure, but when its over you are faced with an extremely dull top-down view of the playing area with three tiny bods stuck in the middle of it.

You have to take control of Jonny, and wherever he goes the other two will follow. Moving Jonny about is no problem. Moving him where you actually want him to go is a different matter entirely. This is because Hadji and the dog frequently get in the way, blocking doors and entrances when you want to go through them. Much Jonny-joggling is required just so you can get the others to move out of the way. This can be more than a little frustrating and more or less sums up the game on the whole. The graphics are awful, the puzzles arent exactly mind-bending, my joystick didnt work and the arcade sequences are a complete joke. Dont buy it!