Gift is a 3D Platform Game published in 2001 by Cryo Interactive and Wanadoo. It parodies and references popular films and video games.
It's about Gift, a little red sneaky creature with big yellow eyes who is tasked with the rescue beautiful princess Lolita Globo, the task that other heroes, despite being brave and beefy, failed. Armed with the Magic Staff, he travels between different mad worlds of video games to find seven dwarves who will help him to save the princess from The Shadow of the Black Deep Dark Night.
The game is full of puzzles and logical tasks. It features indestructible enemies. Some of them die in light or darkness, and turning on/off lights will kill them, while the others can only be avoided. Meanwhile, there are enemies who can be killed by Gift's staff. Also Gift can charge his staff from magic crystals to get special abilities such as creating light/darkness, freezing or making gunpowder. These abilities require magic powder to perform. On some levels Gift can use a shadow gun, the weapon which hits enemies' or objects' shadows and freezes them.
Not to be confused with either G.I.F.T or The Gift.
Gift contains examples of:
- Achilles' Heel: Little Darks and Dark Guardians can exist only in light, while Little Clears and Light Guardians only in darkness.
- Angry Guard Dog: The Dog enemies, obviously.
- An Ice Person: The Blue Crystal power allows Gift to freeze water, lava and heated objects.
- Big Bad: The Shadow of the Black Deep Dark Night. Despite being the BigBad, The Shadow shows to Gift once and never fights him directly.
- Black Speech: Little Darks and Little Clears tend to mumble something like that.
- Block Puzzle: Appears frequently.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The Dogs resemble four-legged spider-like creatures with large heads and blank black faces rather than actual animals. Also the Cosmonauts are penguin- or frog-like creatures with green scarves and antennae on their heads.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Gift will be killed by lava only if he falls into it, and even then, he drowns it.
- Cross Attack: Gift's wooden magic staff is shaped like a cross.
- Damsel in Distress: Princess Lolita Globo.
- Dark Is Evil: Little Darks and darkness can kill Gift. Also the non-deadly darkness where Little Clears can live.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Gift's Black Crystal power creates a bubble of darkness around him that kills nearby Little Darks and removes the effects of red and green light.
- Elite Mooks: Light and Dark Guardians, Burners and Blue Burners.
- Energy Weapon: Lots of them, and usually they are moving. Some are deadly and some are detector beams which activate or deactivate mechanisms.
- Exploding Barrels: With TNT sign on them. They can be exploded via burning gunpowder.
- Eye Beams: The Patroller's head resembles a large flashlight. Don't get under its beams, or you'll die!
- Faceless Goons: All enemies.
- Fantastic Light Source: Magic staff via Yellow Crystal power.
- Floating Limbs: The Cosmonauts' hands and the Guardians' heads.
- Freeze Ray: Gift's Magic Staff shoots these when charged with Blue Crystal energy.
- Horny Vikings: One of the heroes failed to rescue Lolita Globo.
- Ice Palace: Walls in many rooms in Iceland are either made of ice or covered with thick snow.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: The Shadow Gun. It should be armed at shadows of enemies or objects. Somewhat downplayed since it only freezes enemies and doesn't kill.
- Invincible Minor Minion: Little Clears and Darks, Guardians and Patrollers. Little Clears and Darks can be killed by light or darkness respectively, though.
- Invisible Wall: Sometimes pretty nasty ones preventing Gift to a fireplace, for example. Also a very prominent one near Lolita's house.
- Kill It with Fire: The Burners and the Blue Burners attack Gift with their burning arms. Also they leave a small temporary fire when killed.
- Kill It with Ice: The Blue Crystal power, while freezing water, kills everything in it. Including you.
- Light Is Good: Gift's Yellow Crystal power allows to kill Little Darks around him and survive in very dark places.
- Light Is Not Good: Little Clears and light where Little Darks live. Also green light which drains all magic powder from Gift's staff and red light which reduces his movement speed and jump height.
- Living Shadow: The Informer's shadow has arms which the creature itself doesn't have, though the Informer is harmless and helps Gift by pointing out the right path.
- Made of Indestructium: Justified. Many enemies are invincible, but it's implied that they are such only for Gift.
- Magic Staff: Gift's weapon. Though it can only be used in melee combat and gets all its powers from magic crystals.
- Malevolent Architecture: Everywhere except level select zone and Lolita's house.
- Mayincatec: The world of Paztec.
- Mooks: Dogs and Cosmonauts.
- One-Word Title: Gift
- Power Crystal: Yellow, Black, Blue and Red Magic Crystals which give Gift one of four special powers: to create light, to create darkness, to fire a Freeze Ray or to produce gunpowder respectively. The Green Crystal unpowers the Magic Staff.
- Punny Name: The worlds of Tiptanic, Paztec, Star Stress and Iceland.
- Seven Deadly Sins: Every dwarf emphasizes one of these.
- Shout-Out:
- The first level is a nod to Titanic (1997).
- There are Indiana Jones' hat and whip in a temple in Paztec.
- The sleeping princess and the dwarves are nods to the Snow White fairy tale.
- The Faceless: All enemies have no faces.
