Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Who today remembers that Matrix star Keanu Reeves received his big break from a movie in which he played a college drop-out with big hair and even bigger dreams to make it as a rock star? As odd as it now sounds, that’s what Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure gave the world – alongside a whole host of catchphrases – and it’s strange to think that Neo as we know him might not exist if it weren’t for one Ted 'Theodore' Logan…

The Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure movie was based around such brain-twisters, with the two college students travelling back in time to enrol the services of various historical figures to help with an overdue homework project. This plot from the movie is re-enacted here, in the shape of a sprawling collection of levels spanning the centuries. By climbing into your trusty time-travelling phone-box, you’ll travel to ancient Greece to meet Socrates, the Wild West to round up Billy the Kid, and 15th century France to meet Joan of Arc.

The levels involve collecting various items in order to convince the historical figure in question to come with you: Socrates is after 100 of his scrolls that he’s misplaced, Joan of Arc wants you to bring her 100 chalices, while Billy the Kid needs 100 bullets. Find all 100 and you’ve got your man/woman. Except it’s not quite as straightforward as that. While some items can be discovered merely by wandering around the large levels, others require you to complete puzzles and find additional items to trade with in-game characters. And so it goes; you’ll be arranging coloured blocks, racing horses, driving Bill and Ted's Wyld Stallyns band's tour-van, searching for coloured keys and avoiding hazards.

So far, so ordinary; the puzzles, while varied and well-balanced aren’t new or anything we’ve not seen elsewhere. What really sets Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure apart is the interaction between Bill and Ted themselves. You control both, switching between them with a press of the ‘0’ key, and each has a special ability. Bill is able to push heavy stone blocks while Ted can swim. That might not sound like much, but each skill is essential if you wish to complete the tasks set you in every level. You’ll need to sit and think on numerous occasions how to best make Bill and Ted work together to achieve their (and your) goals.

And it’s utterly, utterly engrossing. The visuals, while a little plain and simple, keep the on-screen action clear and uncluttered, while the controls are an exercise in efficiency, relying solely on your handset’s thumbpad. Collecting all 100 items in each level makes for a meaty challenge but, as each one can be done in a matter of minutes, it strikes a perfect balance between offering bite-sized chunks of gameplay within a larger, more satisfying three-course meal.

It’s for this reason we love Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure so much – it takes the usual adventure/puzzle game formula and really opens it up everyone. It’s infinitely more accessible than most games of this type and you don’t need to be familiar with the movie that inspired it at all in order to enjoy it. In the words of Bill and Ted themselves, “Not bad!”