Tony Tough, our hero, and fountain of wit, is a small fellow with huge glasses and yellow trenchcoat. His office, which Tony shares with his purple pet dog (actually a Tapir), is located in the basement of Wallen and Wallen Investigations. Tony is assigned to find out what fiend has been stealing the candy from the kids over past Halloweens. Most of Tony's co-workers consider him a joke because of his belief in UFO's and general nerdiness. One night, Tony's purple tapir sidekick is kidnapped and he gets a mysterious ransom note beckoning him to come to Halloween Park. Tony figures that this is the break he's been waiting for and he'll finally be able to prove himself. Tony swiftly travels to the park, the gates shut, and the hunt for Tony's beloved assistant commences.

It's quite a shame that this game didn't have a bigger success story because the staff at ProGraph have really outdone themselves, having created something very special. Instead of trying to reformulate the genre, ProGraph has brought back to the table what was so great about the adventures of the past. Tony Tough's interface is very reminiscent of the LucasArts SCUMM system and a lot of LucasArts style humor shines throughout the game.

The backgrounds are colorful, cartoony, and witty, and fit the overall mood quite well. Along the way is a colorful (sometimes very colorful) cast of characters that includes talking thespian statues, a crying pirate, a manic-depressive clown, a bizarre bazaar owner (it's the truth!), a soft-hearted poetic beast, and even more silliness than you could imagine.

Great puzzles abound and they all have logical, cartoony solutions. There are two difficulty modes, and the harder one will get the veteran adventurer's brains smoking. There is a lot of content to chew through. One puzzle even allows access to a whole separate bonus level! The voiceovers are so fittingly appropriate and the dialogue is so quick-witted that you may be not be able to hit the mouse buttons for how hard you'll be laughing. Possibly the best news of all is that you don't need the latest Pentium 4 or 3-D video card in order to run Tony Tough.

GotGame entertainment, the game's publisher, seems to be at the forefront of adventure gaming at the moment. With the release of 2001's sleeper favorite, Trecision's The Watchmaker, and Tony Tough in 2002, the future of adventure gaming looks brighter than it ever has before. So will Tony's theory about the candy being stolen by aliens prove true? Will Pantagruel be saved? Play to find out.