Hook

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Peter Banning is a respectable, hard working married man with two children, but he is a man with a long forgotten past which has come back to haunt him...he was Peter Pan! One day, his children have been kidnapped by his old adversary, Captain Hook, and Peter must travel to the magical world, called Neverland, to rescue them and recapture his lost youth along the way.
As with most adventure games back then, to perform an action you must highlight your chosen icon by clicking the left mouse button when the cursor is on that icon, then click on the main screen to perform that action. If no icons are highlighted you are in walk mode, and clicking on the main screen you'll walk to the nearest point possible to the cursor. In the status panel, there are facial representations of both Hook and Peter. If you perform an action that is beneficial to the plot of rescuing your kids then Hook will become angry and Peter will smile! This is a good indication of your successful progress.
Initially dressed in modern clothes, your first task is to find some pirate gear so that to look comfortable in a ...pirates world! Once that task is completed the race is on to rescue your kids. So without hesitation, you go on a quest to learn how to ... fly... only then can you finally challenge Hook to a fight. In general, after a brief walk around the initial area, and meeting and chatting with the inhabitants, there is an indication of what you have to do. With the help of the locals you have to train yourself to fly and become the Peter Pan again!
One thing that is obviously missing out of this game (compared to the Monkey Island series) is the lack of humor, maybe that's because there was none in the movie, but regardless it's certainly apparent.
Hook is a great adventure game, though no matter how good a game of this type looks and sounds, it won't get any kind of respect if it doesn't have enough locations to visit. A really enjoyable adventure game with nice visuals and memorable sound, however a very short one.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Atari ST version offers some nice graphics, with a fair share of nice touches, such as birds flying around the background, and fish jumping in the sea, resembling Monkey's Island graphics. In general, Hook offers well drawn graphics and great character animations running in 20+ colors on screen in the ST (up to 16 colors for the action area and around 10 colors on the status\inventory panel). Compared to the Amiga and PC version (offering 64, and more than 100 and colors respectively), the game's graphics look pretty good here. What is bit annoying in the ST version is probably the flip-screen of the scenes when Peter walks to change a location.
The sound is probably on the negative side. The tunes change throughout the game and varies depending on your circumstances and position all of which help to enhance the fantasy environment, but the sound effects are of low quality here.

GAMEPLAY VIDEO
Our Gameplay video features all three major 16bit versions of the game (namely the DOS, ST and AMIGA). The ST version is at 13:06.