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Sorry, but the Hook movie was one of the most utterly crap films of last year. It was self-indulgent and butchered the Peter Pan story beyond all belief. Come on, Neverland instead of Neverneverland? Peter Banning? Why didn't they just go the whole hog and replace Captain Hook with Sergeant Stump or something?

Anyway, Ocean's latest piece of licensed software - Hook, no less - takes its inspiration from the Spielberg movie. The game is a graphic adventure, in the Lucasfilm mould, where you travel to Neverland and rescue Peter Pan's kidnapped sprogs - oh, and you get to recapture his youth along the way as well.

From the layout of the main game screen, it's obvious the whole game has been heavily influenced by Monkey Island. The top portion of the screen shows your surroundings which are fully interactive - to go somewhere you just click on the door or passage and Peter moves accordingly. At the bottom of the screen are five main icons: Look, Talk, Pick Up, Use and Give. There's an inventory window at the very bottom of the screen as well.

Plenty of colourful characters are scattered throughout the game, waiting for you to chat to them. However, they may be less forthcoming at the beginning of the game. To talk to someone, you click first on the Talk icon, then on the person in question.

Like Monkey Island, Hook gives you several problems to solve. And they're also pitched at about the same difficulty level. These puzzles are linear in design, so that to complete one large problem you have to solve three or four smaller challenges along the way.

It's all terribly reminiscent of Monkey Island. However, where that game is hysterical and innovative, Hook is slightly amusing and derivative. Lucasfilm's wonderful interface, has been copied, but somehow it's not as flexible or, indeed, intuitive.

Graphically the game is brilliant. It has a cartoon feel to it with the backgrounds and sprites all interacting really well together. Movement around the gameworld is quick with the characters nipping in and out of the screen in very fast perspective. The game has also got samples mixed in with the chip music.

While Hook is well programmed and a lot of fun to play, it seems to lack that spark which makes Lure Of The Temptress or Monkey Island so exciting. It's certainly not the kind of game you want to play all night until Get Stuffed comes on.

1. A polished but ultimately satisfying game. Buy Hook only if you're a massive fan of graphic adventures or have pleasant childhood memories of Peter Pan. Then expect to be disappointed.