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One feels a lot like the Disney films of yore, in which mice would eat breadcrumbs at the start and sing "zipedy-do-dah"! It creates a warm feeling that doesn't provide belly-laughs, but at least fixes you up with a permanent half-grin.

Bone is a cutesy-pie adventure in which tasks are as vital as chopping wood, picking apples and playing hide and seek with small shrews: hardly edge-of-the-seat stuff. But the dialogue of Fone Bone (hero), Phoney Bone (brother and grumpy antagonist) and Smiley Bone (brother and itinerant songstrel) crackles with warmth and neat dialogue trees that expand the characters of the nubbin nosed ones with great dexterity.

Thing is though, episodic as it may be, this is two hours of entertainment being sold off for $20 (11) which, despite the fuzziness, is a total rip-off for two hours of play. What's more, punctuating all the stomping and the shrew-play are some of the worst attempts at mini-games ever: sub- Flash and sub-normal, the hardest thing about sections like the running from bees' game is attempting to not stab your own eyes out...

Is the irreverence of Sam & Max safe in the hands of TellTale? Yes, indubitably. Will the team have to pull their socks up? Well, maybe if they use that string over there on that winch and attach it to the lip of the sock and...