I had completely missed the first installment of the game though, so I wasn’t quite sure how the approach to gameplay was handled, and how well the story resembled what I remembered.

At its heart, The Great Cow Race is an old school, point and click adventure in 3D. I would compare to something along the lines of Day of the Tentacle, or Maniac Mansion, and while it doesn’t quite meet the level of quality that those games had, it makes a fair enough attempt at it.

The Great Cow Race comes right off of the events of the previous title, Out from Boneville, which introduced the three Bone cousins, Fone, Smiley, and Phoney. Fone is considered to be the “main” character as far as storyline goes, but each character gets their own fair share of playtime. Fone is the most well rounded of the bunch, easy going, caring for others, the works. Phoney has the surliest disposition of the three, and Smiley is a bit of a carefree jokester. When the game begins, you’re put into the role of Phoney Bone, as he attempts to get something to drink at the local bar, and finds out more and more about the upcoming Cow Race. From there, a plot unfolds that has Phoney attempting to rig the betting, by using Smiley to dress up in a fake cow costume and participate in the race, in the hopes of defeating the local champion. I won’t give too much away besides that, but the story is fun and light hearted, and definitely worth playing through.

TGCR never gets to be mundane and tedious. The hint system is pretty well rounded, and you’ll never find yourself questioning what to do or where to go next. The only real problem that pops up on occasion is figuring out which of the cousins is best suited for a particular task. It can get a bit frustrating when you know what you need to do, but not who to do it with. Outside of that, the game is very easy to get into, especially for casual gamers, and with the assistance of hints (which will eventually tell you what to do, if you mess it up enough) you’ll be able to experience the whole game from start to finish in a fair amount of time.

Graphically, the game isn’t anything to get too excite about. The 3D models are nice enough, and the animation works well. It’s nice to see the characters come alive from the comic, and Smith’s artistic impression is definitely left in tact. Some of the environments are a bit bland to look at, especially in the color department (there’s a lot of brown, A LOT) but that’s a fairly minor gripe.

The music is ok, but nothing noteworthy. It represents the cartoonish look of the characters well enough, but you’ll hardly take notice of it while playing. The voice over work is pretty solid though, and I really enjoyed the acting put into each of the main characters.

All in all, for the low retail price, you can’t really go wrong with this title. It’s not going to blow you out of the water, and its not quite innovative, but it is incredibly charming and fun to play through. Even if you haven’t picked up the first installment (which I will be doing soon enough) you should give this one a chance (available at www.telltalegames.com), especially if you were a fan of the series. I look forward to checking out the future installments, and cross my fingers that we might get a Rose installment at some point!