In the early years of my gaming career, there was a time when some of the best games were all text adventures. No graphics, just good (or bad) stories telling where the puzzles had to be typed out in simple two-word phrases like "lower ladder" or "get fish." Probably the most critically praised and popular was a game called Zork. Now for you younger gamers who missed this important part of gaming history, these text adventures could be as challenging and mind numbing as some of the hardest graphic-heavy games. Sure you did a lot of reading but back then, reading seemed to be a more popular past-time (pre-internet) and even people like my Dad found themselves obsessed with simply getting out of that darn computer lab (Lurking Horror).

So now, a small game company called The General Coffee Company has pulled us back to those text adventures. But what they also did was more or less made it a comic book-like text adventure. Not content with mere words; the programmers decided to put little graphic boxes at the top of the screen a la comic-book windows in order to not put anyone under 25 into shock for fear of not being able to see something. Well, I am happy to report that not only does this work, but it works well.

OK, so imagine that you live in the big city, and like a lot of people you have a roommate. Now imagine that your roommate is not only incredibly hard to wake up and somewhat of a slob but he's also the city greatest defender and superhero FUTURE BOY! Now imagine that he always eats your bacon. Future Boy is a full-on text adventure that places you in the pants of Future Boy's roommate. You're clever, you're witty and without giving away any major spoilers, you may be as big of a hero as Future Boy.

What's nice about this game is that FB is not trapped in the two-word phrase prison. And while you can't write out an essay of instructions per turn you can write out decent phrases like "Put dirt into lock" or "Beat Carl with bottle." What's also nice is that this game has a pretty decent sense of humor. The programmers did their homework when it came to creative puzzles and quirky dialogue. Not once did I feel like I was stuck in an impossible area, yet there was a nice even challenge as the game progresses. Several times I would type out some sort of obscure or crazy instruction and the game would respond with a wise-crack answer. Yes, I laughed quite a bit.

The game has somewhat remedial graphics, but after a while you start to realize that it's totally on purpose. The game wants you to picture the problems in front of you in your mind, thus keeping true to the text adventure; the pictures that pop up at the top of the screen only seem to be there to give you a frame to what you are imagining. So I can't really say that the graphics are bad, since they are there as a mental guide. And I can't really say the graphics are good, since they look fairly bland. So decide what you want about how this game looks, but remember, in the end it really doesn't matter.

Now with that being said, there is some fairly funny and decent voice acting to be found here. The game (I know I said this before) really is humorous and while some people are going to not find any humor in this title, there will be just as many grinning ear-to-ear as they play. So, there you go, it's a comic book, a funny comic book with good sound.

Gameplay: 7.5
You type, and in some cases, you can put the mouse cursor on a visual object up top and right click it which then pops up a series of base instructions, that if you click will automatically place it in the typing field for you to finish the instruction. The game recognizes more than 4,000 words and phrases, and players will find how easy it is to play. An easy-going typing game I found myself burning through long stretches of time.

Graphics: 5.9
They are remedial and only serve to frame the pictures that you should be forming in your head. I feel bad scoring the graphics so low, but know that it makes no real difference in the fun you will have playing this title.

Sound: 8.0
Funny and well-delivered lines are found throughout the game as is clever little sound effects. I read a lot of comics in my youth and this game sounds like what a comic book would, if it had sound, and you played it.

Difficulty: Medium
It took me about 90 minutes to get through the first four scenarios the game threw my way. Not bad, but I almost felt like I had an upper hand playing this game since I played many, many text adventures in my youth.

Concept: 8.5
Been a long, long time since I played a text adventure. Too long in my opinion, so, like a classic car that only gets cooler the older it gets, I bet we see more text adventures in the future.

Overall: 7.6
I think that this game could be a sleeper title. It's not going to get a lot of fanfare from the general public but it should find it's own niche in the world. If you see it out there I would say pick it up, it's not going to be very expensive and is well worth the $19.99 price tag.