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"The Mask: The Origin" introduces a new genre in the software world the multimedia comic book. We have all heard about edutainment, multimedia encyclopedias and other educative titles, but we never really had a chance to read a comic strip on the screen. Hopefully, this is going to change!
"The Mask: The Origin" is the first title of a series based on the character created by Mike Richardson. It mixes sound, animation and original art in a way to deliver a new experience that has never been seen before. Cyber Comics jointly with Metrolight Studios created a new genre that will surely have great success in the future.
Although comics are great, they are sometimes missing what we like the most in multimedia titles: sound and animation. The multimedia comic book presents a possible future for comics. We should also keep in mind that most people would perhaps prefer the original comic book because of the way the art is laid out in a small book which a computer cannot deliver. Anyhow, this new genre certainly promises to be a great success because of what we said above, and we will be anxious to see the other titles.
Now, let us take a closer look at "The Mask: The Origin". The program, like many others, runs under Windows, and we cannot change much about that, it is like a fashion. Graphics are made directly from the original art of the series, and they are really great. The whole title is a compilation of the first five Mask comic books and features Quicktime animations and over 450 richly illustrated pages! You will hear over two hours of dialogues, music and sounds, and believe me, you have never experienced a comic like this one before!
Divided into five chapters, you can jump directly to a specific page of the book in a nonlinear way or instead, follow the story line which is usually what you do when reading a book!
The only thing that could be improved in this software is the access time and sound breaks when switching between pages.
Activision UK Ltd.
GRAPHICS ------------------ 84% Long Island House, Suite 3A,
SOUND ------------------ 90% 1/4 Warple Way,
MUSIC ------------------ 90% London, W3 0RQ, England.
GAMEPLAY ------------------ --% Tel: +44-(0)81-742-9400
INTEREST ------------------ 85%
Cambrix Publishing Inc,
6269 Variel Avenue, Suite B,
OVERALL ------------------ 87% Woodland Hills, CA 91367,
Tel: 818-992-8484
