Muppet Monster Adventure

Release Date: October 20, 2000

WHEN THE MUPPETS GET TRANSFORMED INTO EVIL VERSIONS OF THEMSELVES WHO YOU GONNA CALL? A SMALL FROG, OF COURSE

Cuteness. Love it □r loathe it, if* definitely a driving force - and selling point - in videogames, helping to propel the likes of Spyro, Rayman and Nintendo's Mario to Platinum levels of performance. So when Hermit The Frog's nephew Robin hops and gribbets his way on to your screen in Moppet Monster Adventure don't be surprised to find yourself cooing “Aww! He's 1 0000 cute!" Maybe.

Sadly though, all is not well in the land of the Muppets, Kermit and the gang have been transformed into evil-doing versions of themselves; even The Frog himself has been changed into a bolt-necked Frankenstein's monster - with Miss Piggy as his bride, of course. Luckily for children, and nostalgia-mongers, everywhere Kermit's nephew Robin has taken it upon himself to set the world to rights, and rescue the Muppets from their evil purgatory.

But aside from the cuteness-overload, the first thing that strikes you when you play Moppet Monster Adventure is how beautifully smooth the game engine is. Robin leaps, swims, flies and tussles with all the grace of a swan (pretty good going for a pubescent frog), and never once does the game seem to suffer from glitches or other ill-effects. It's also as pretty as a peach in the looks department, with plenty of eye-friendly colony smooth polygons and funny characters.

Wisely, developer Traveller's Tales has added the kind of humorous little touches that

“Even Kermit has been changed into a bolt-necked Frankenstein’s monster”

makes the Muppet Show appealing to more than just the little 'urn. Take the voices, for example - surprise a wandering peacock, and hell squawk in an absurdly human manner before flapping off in a tizz. The game's awash with these incidental touches, and they really do help to enrich the environments you explore, and the mini-games you inevitably come across,

We like it already. Whether we actually find ourselves falling In love with it, however, will depend on what turns up in the finished version.