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Last issue we hailed Gift, the sick and twisted product of the minds of Phillipe Ulrich and Regis Loisel as being different, exciting and tongue-in-cheek. This was due to a lot of hype and inaccurate press releases. Having played the game, it's impossible not to be deeply disappointed.

The background sounded so great. At a videogame plant somewhere in sprawling Game Valley, a brand new game currently being play-tested has exhausted all the heroes sent to rescue the beautiful princess Lolita Globo. Gift, a sneaky, overweight slob with a big mouth is volunteered for the job. Armed with a stick, he has to brave the Deep Black Shadow of the Obscure Dark Night in his task, which is to lead seven dwarves to the heroine in seven totally mad worlds crammed with parodies of famous games and films... or at least that's what we were told.

We were also told that the game combined pure platform action with more thought-provoking elements, notably real-time 3D puzzles on the theme of light and shade. It has to be said that this is the most straightforward, dull game to be released in a while. Perhaps the PC version delivers what it promises, but the Game Boy version is just an overhead puzzle game that involves collecting a series of keys to open a series of doors. What? How original! we hear you all rightly cry.

If this weren't bad enough, there isn't a glimmer of a context or plot connected to the Game Boy Color version, and the little red blob is a nightmare to control. Oh, and his stick is about as effective a weapon as a thimble with a feather on the end.

You'd do better to spend a grand and buy a PC to play that version rather than spending your cash on this empty little adventure.

This game took me right back to my gameplaying youth - it's almost exactly the same as a game called Atic Atac on the ZX Spectrum from Ultimate: Play The Game (who are now better known as Rare).

It's obvious that the programmers of Gift were big fans of Atic Atac - the game structure is the same, graphics are similar and the objective is, well, identical! This is no bad thing, though - there's lots of enjoyment to be had.

Graphics 80%
Looks sort of French!

Sound 40%
Don't turn it up!

Playability 40%
Annoying and predictable.

Lastability 40%
Seven similar stages.

Overall 63%
A bit let down for us all.