It’s been a while since I’ve played
an adventure pointed clearly toward our youngest gaming community. If
I’ve learned anything about children while my own two boys were small,
I’ve learned that any game wishing to catch and keep their attention had
better be colorful and musical. It should possess an interestingly diverse
but simple storyline. The puzzles and/or mini games should not be totally
impossible to master. Great Journey: Mr. Penguin’s Letter, produced
by the Polish RPG/Action development company, Rebelmind Games, goes far to
reach this mark, succeeding where many would fail. The look of Great
Journey is vastly different from Rebelmind’s normal RPG fare (Grom
and Space Hack). It is very easy on the eyes and offers much in the
way of practical computer exercise while providing an interesting and
captivating story, plenty of juvenile eye candy to watch and lovely music
to listen to.
A year has passed since I wrote my
note…
The story is simple. Mr. Penguin, being extremely
concerned about the ecosystem and living environment of the South Pole,
writes a desperate letter to his two little ten-year-old friends, Tony and
Annie (obviously pen pals). In the letter he describes how someone
(The Polluter) has been dumping garbage offshore near the South
Pole where Mr. Penguin lives. However, while he and his friends try and
try, they just can’t operate a boat fast enough to catch the culprit. (My
guess is that Mr. Penguin’s wings, or lack of useable same are just no
match for the high seas of Antarctica…) Mr. Penguin begs the children
to find their mutual friend Professor Glass, who seems to be doing
research on a remote island somewhere west of South America and south of
Tahiti. He suggests that they go and see “Captain” (that old sea dog!)
and see if he won’t take them to Professor Glass so that this horrible
situation could be resolved and everyone could have “Happy Feet”(ahem…um
er...sorry.) And with that, Great Journey begins!
But I should have known this right
from the start…
The interface is easy and quite pleasant to use. The
player chooses between one of two characters: a little boy, Tony or a
little girl, Annie. When you first start up the game and choose which
child you wish your “alter ego” to be, you also choose one of their
favorite objects. It is also important to note here that the subtitles,
which run in tandem with the adventure, are in the form of a large and
easily-read font. This is a nice touch for the young who may be early
readers or the not-so-young who often find subtitles rather difficult to
view.
As you play along with the story (which is very linear),
each new action required has a tutorial for it, whether it is for mouse
control or keyboard selection. The nice thing about this adventure is that
it IS just that…an adventure…made for children without math -- without
spelling, just pure fun. There are rocks and pretty flower pads to jump
on…cameras to take pictures with…chests and treasures to find…boats to
sail…sea planes to fly and yes, problems and inventory puzzles to solve.
And I’m not even mentioning the mini games here such as soccer to play
with an African Shaman…icebergs to ride…ski jump contests to win and
peanuts to catch in a basket. (Oh, I guess I did mention them…)
This isn’t just a plain point and click adventure; there are plenty of
arcade and action sequences. And an ingenious built-in hint system.
I’ll send an SOS to the world…
The save function is activated by clicking on the “exit”
sign on the lower left of the screen. It is automatic. You exit and the
session or Chapter is over. When you begin again you can load up a
previous Chapter, but you will have to start it over again -- one of the
things I saw as a drawback -- but then you can’t have everything. There
is an enormous amount of jumping and “platform gaming” throughout the
piece, and the rule is a simple one here to note: if you fail in your
endeavors, you start the section over again. Now this in itself could be
considered another drawback by many gamers who like their point and click
adventures to be just that: “point and click.” Although the “action
sequences” I encountered while playing Great Journey are many, they
are moderate in difficulty and if you give them a chance, are really quite
fun to do.
I hope that someone gets my…
The palette of the game is brilliant in color, offering
2D pre-rendered backdrops in jewel-like tones and animated 3D characters,
which are all beautiful to look at. Rather stunning, actually and one of
the strong points of value for Great Journey. Rounding out this
visual array is the music by Marek Dutka (the other strong point)
and lively sound effects, which fit perfectly with these vibrant graphics.
It reminded me of stepping into a ride at Disney World. It was more often
than not that I found myself humming the main musical theme from the game,
which is beautifully written by Jarostaw Siwinski.
The vocal quality of Great Journey is clear,
animated and perfectly enunciated for all of the adult and animal
characters. Yet I was disappointed with the quality of the children’s
voices. Although the words are well pronounced, the voices seem to lack
that certain luster of innocence and are usually devoid of any emotion
where you would normally expect some sort of emotion to be. Something the
developers may wish to work on for their future projects.
Message in a bottle…
The learning curve of the game is fairly easy. Though
it is geared toward the six to twelve-year-old crowd, it most assuredly
can be enjoyed as a quality family experience. All in all, I’m sure that
many adult gamers, as well as the target audience it was created for
(especially those new to the genre), might just enjoy the story that the
adventure offers. I found Great Journey to be a pleasant diversion;
one that I hope will forge the way for more children’s fare like it.
…inferno
Grade B-
Minimum Requirements:
OS:
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
CPU: 400
MHz Processor
64 Mb
RAM
DirectX
compatible 16 Mb Video Card: (nVidia TNT2 Class)
DirectX
compatible Sound Card
DirectX
7.0
Hard
Disk: 450MB
CD-ROM
6x
Mouse
and Keyboard
Recommended Requirements:
OS:
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
CPU: 500
MHz Processor
64 Mb
RAM
DirectX
compatible 32 Mb Video Card: (nVidia TNT2 Class)
DirectX
compatible Sound Card
DirectX
7.0
Hard
Disk: 450MB
CD-ROM
6x
Mouse
and Keyboard
Played on:
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home
SP 2
CPU: Pentium D 950 3.4GHz
800MHz
RAM: 2GB DDR2
Video: BFG nVidia Geforce
7600GT OC 256MB 128bit
Sound: SoundBlaster Audigy
DVD ROM: DVD-ROM DVD-1S16P 16x
Monitor: Northgate 20' Flat
Panel Monitor
DirectX Version: 9.0c
Credits: Message in a Bottle
Lyrics by Sting
October 2006
design copyright ©
2006
GameBoomers
Group
