DS Review: Grey's Anatomy

Ever since a young age, I've been fascinated by anything and everything to do with the medical field. Some of that may stem from having a long history of medical ailments my whole life, some of it may stem from reading medical textbooks for fun. Whatever the reason, I've owned pretty much every single video title based on a medical premise since I was about 7 years old. (If it was for a system I didn't even own, I'd get it anyway and find someone who'd let me play it at their place. Yes. I am that much of a nerd for this stuff.) In addition, I also watch pretty much all the medical-based television shows that hit the airwaves too - E.R., Scrubs, House, Doc, Private Practice, etc. Last but not least, I can't forget the one that seems to be everybody's current favorite (okay, no hatemail from the House fans now), Grey's Anatomy. I just about jumped for joy when I found out a video game was being made of it.

But of all the companies out there to attempt such an undertaking..... it had to be Ubisoft. The company notorious for having fabulous game ideas, but bad execution. This, unfortunately, is no exception, I hate to say.

Don't get me wrong. There's a lot of nice things I can say about this game too. For instance, the graphics on this game are pretty superb; not only for a DS game, but for being based on real life actors and actresses. The likenesses are absolutely dead-on it to the point where it's almost creepy. In addition, the realism during certain surgical procedures (i.e. craniotomy) have officially been the first in a video game, ever, to nearly make me literally dry heave at how realistic they looked. (I got over it, but still. I was not anticipating such a reaction from myself.) The sound effects aren't too bad, either. The music could be improved, in my opinion, but then I'm not too hot on the music from the show either, and it's pretty darn similar to that. So I guess I really don't have a leg to stand on to complain about that. The dialogue and storylines seem like they easily could have been written by the actual screenwriters from the show.

But, as with anything, there's things to nitpick too.... In this case, they're very big somethings. As with all Ubisoft games I have played this far, the places you touch on the screen don't exactly seem to match up with where the touchscreen picks them up. (And before you start tossing accusations that my touchscreen may be messed up, it's not. I've heard this from countless other Ubisoft players, and I tried the game on 3 different DSes. Trust me. It's not the screen.) This causes huge problems in attempting to play a game in which precision is key. But even so? That's not my main issue with this game.

My big beef with the Grey's Anatomy game is that, while sure, a lot of the television series is based on the interpersonal relationship dramas between the characters of the show.... Who wants to play that out in a game? Maybe touch on a little bit, sure, that'd be fine. But a medical drama - ESPECIALLY one transferred into a game - should be focusing on the actual medical procedures primarily; NOT who's screwing who and whatnot. There's only a very small portion of the game spent on doing surgeries. Look, if I wanted a relationship simulator, I'd of played one of the MANY myriad of games out there that focus on just that. With so much quality in other areas, how could they have possibly screwed this up so badly? I just don't know. Needless to say, I'm very disappointed. Even if you're a die-hard Grey's fan, I can't imagine you'd care for this "game" much.

For those who didn't feel like reading the whole review, my final analysis is bleak. Great in theory, terrible in execution. I give this game a 3 out of 10 clipboards...and it's only that high because of the quality of the graphics.

DS Review: Gardening Mama

With the success of the Cooking Mama series (which yes, I will get around to reviewing one day), it comes as no surprise that they'd expand the franchise further into other arenas to broaden their fanbase. It did surprise me that they chose gardening of all possible avenues to choose as their next endeavor, but hey - who ever thought the cooking games would become such a hit? If anybody would know how to make gardening into an entertaining video game, Majesco would.

The opening screen looks like any given one of the Cooking Mama games, style-wise. (The whole game does, naturally, which I LOVE and scores it major points with me. I'm a geek for their animation style.) The music and sound effects also follow suit with their predecessors...and with the exception of Mama's accent, I like them. That accent though, maybe it's just me, but it sounds like a horribly racist attempt at a Japanese accent. C'mon..."butterfry"? I've known MANY folks of Asian descent, and never once have I encountered one who pronounces L's like that. But I guess if nothing else, it's almost free entertainment. I just couldn't help but feel that it's pretty inevitable that I'm sure somebody's offended somewhere over it.

In this game, you grow a variety of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Of the flowers, it's a pretty fair array of the most common flower types, and then some. I was a little disappointed that there were no calla lilies, but hey, can't win em all. The fruit and vegetable varieties, I wish they'd of broadened their range. They had the absolute basics, and that's it. But the ones they did have were still fun. Better still though are the special unlockable plants ;) I won't give away the surprises here because that would defeat a lot of the point of playing the game. But trust me, they're pretty. (Also, if you get a perfect score in the special garden, you get peacock butterflies to visit your plants instead of swallowtail butterflies. As I am a stickler for perfection, I never stopped at anything shy of a 100 rating, so I have no clue what else shows up if you don't get a perfect score.)

I was also impressed with the level of detail paid to to process of growing each plant, even if some of them were more than a little unrealistic in their approach. Also, despite the game's simplistic style, there's a lot of complexity to the game. You'd be amazed how tricky it is to get a perfect score on a lot of the levels! I had some difficulty in most of the levels that involved digging, and the ones that involved drawing specific shapes - namely the watering and fertilizer levels - had tricky parts. Am I the only person who can't draw a star to save their ass? And unless you get the spiral JUST perfect in the watering level, it won't count it. They should've allowed for a little more leeway as far as perfect precision goes in drawing these shapes. Speaking of the fertilizer levels, I'm also annoyed by the ones that involve waiting for the right color to pop up...but that's just because I'm very impatient. I don't like having to catch the mice either, but...I don't particularly like mice to begin with. (Sorry to any mouse lovers out there.)

I was also very impressed by just how customizable the gardens themselves are! You can add in all sorts of decorative fixtures all over the place. I wasn't patient enough to do it with all my gardens, but it was nice just knowing I could if I wanted to. It serves no real purpose in the game other than aesthetics, but this customization does make it feel more like a real garden.

You also have the opportunity to customize Mama's appearance. I had much more fun with this than the garden customization, but then, I love almost any game that allows me to play fashionista ;) By the time I was done though, I noticed something... Mama had suddenly taken on an uncanny likeness to Sarah Palin! (I swear it was unintentional.)

Here's a nifty little trick that I discovered entirely on accident, but turned out to be pretty handy: While playing the levels where you must break up the clouds and blow them away, if you don't feel like wasting your breath, sit in front of your stereo speakers and have some loud music on. The beat of the music will literally scare those clouds away!

Overall, even if you're not a particularly outdoorsy or gardening person (which I'm not), you'll more likely than not enjoy this game. There is something inherently rewarding about watching things grow that you've cultivated, even in the virtual world. If you like simulation games, give it a try!

I'm going to go ahead and rate this title an 8 1/2 green thumbs out of 10. :)

DS Review: Littlest Pet Shop: Spring

Despite my known disdain for the new style Littlest Pet Shop toys, I have to admit...I did squee a little when I not only saw this title, but that there's an entire series of these games. This was the newest one, so I decided what the hell...I'll try it out. Why not? I have memories of hours upon hours of playing with the original toys over at my cousins' houses when I was little (I was SO envious of the fact that they both owned complete collections of these and had ALL the accessory packs), and I got warm fuzzies just thinking about it.

I spent more time than I probably should have playing this game, but I must admit, it was a pretty nice distraction from the god-awful stomach bug I caught the same day. Alright, I'll get it out of the way right off the bat: The music isn't bad, and the animation style is actually pretty nice. If you don't like things that are 'sickeningly cute', chances are this game is NOT for you. For those of you who are, stick around. You'll enjoy this immensely. (The huge oversized eyes definitely help.)

Basically, the premise of this game is to grow and own the biggest, best pet shop ever. You begin the game with three pets; all of whom you must keep fed, happy, and played with. (There's no cleaning up after these pets. Whoopie!) As the game progresses, you unlock more games, pets, and worlds in which to keep your pets. With the coins you find and earn through games, you can purchase more pets, outfits (yes, you're encouraged to dress them), and playsets for your pets. The majority of the game is spent playing the mini-games... And for once, I must say, I'm very impressed with the assortment presented to us - both by the wide selection and for the fact that most of them actually are somewhat challenging!

• Hide and Seek - Exactly what it sounds like.
• Ball Juggling - Closer to a game of kickball than juggling
  
• Super Scratch - I'm not quite sure how exactly this is a game, but the animal tells you a part of its body to scratch (head, neck, or cheek), and you have to scratch it until the meter is filled.
• Balloon Burst - You press the buttons displayed on the top screen and blow into the microphone to inflate the balloon on the bottom screen until it pops. The aim is to create the largest balloon possible.
• Coloring Craze - Just as it sounds. It's a virtual coloring book.
• Beats n Bops - Sort of a poor man's DDR. You click the sides as they light up in beat to the music.
• Dash N Dig - Once you master this, it's one of the best coin--er, kibble--earners in the entire game. You follow the hints the arrows give you and dig as fast as possible to try and find the hidden Easter eggs.
• Skyride Collection - Wheel your pet up and down to collect coins on the skyrider!
• Whirl N Twirl - Spin the pet wheel as fast as you can to sail the furthest way down the hill possible!
• Swing N Spring - Press the correct sequence of buttons quickly to swing higher and higher before leaping off. Sounds MUCH easier than it is! You need a fair amount of coordination to get it perfect.
  
• Nutfest - Crack the walnuts before they land on your pets heads and knock them out.
• Toss N Pop - A typical dart throwing game
• Bubble Bounce - Blow bubbles in the fountain to keep the coins from falling in the water! The longer you keep each one bouncing, the more points you get!
• Pet Sets - Typical card flipping memory game.
• Furry Feast - Scoop the correct fruits into the right chutes before they get sucked into the wrong ones! Fair warning - this game is misleadingly simple when it starts, but as it speeds up, it gets very hard!
  
• Steady Spin - Do your best to keep your pet balanced on top of the ball - don't let them fall!
• Fruit Fling - Use your slingshot to hit the pet carrying the same fruit in your slingshot.
  
• Remember Me - Another memory game. You have a few seconds to memorize which cards are where, and then a pet will run across the top screen. Find the card that matches that pet.
• Snack Sort - Guide the blueberries and strawberries into the correct baskets.
• Volley Paws - A very cute volleyball game

Upon bringing all the pets to your pet shop, they will throw a huge party in the middle of the pet shop; complete with fireworks and all. There's no mention anywhere in the game of anybody actually, y'know, adopting any of these pets, but I guess that's neither here nor there. Being majorly OCD about such things as these, I couldn't help but notice that, since there's lists of all the unlockables and how many you currently have away from the total, I wouldn't have *truly* finished the game until I collected them all. So even after I finished getting all the pets, I continued to play until the TRUE completion of the game, just to see if anything special would happen. Unfortunately for me, I got stuck after completing all the goals - no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to unlock the last few accessories. Oh well. If anyone knows what - if anything - happens upon collecting everything, let me know.

My one main gripe with this game is how much of a pain in the neck it is to have to go back and forth between the different worlds pretty much constantly to check on your pets and to complete goals. It's not *difficult* to do, but it's a pain in the ass to have to do it ALL the time. And believe me...you DO have to. Sometimes you do it because you receive orders that you need to take a pet from one world to another to complete a goal; sometimes you have to do it to check on your various pets; sometimes you have to do it to access different buildings. Regardless, there's plenty of ways this could have been improved upon, but granted that this is my biggest issue in the game, that's really not all that bad at all, considering.

Overall though? This is a pretty decent game, I gotta admit. You can keep just about anybody you hand this game to occupied and amused for hours on end. Go ahead, try it! I'm rating this game a 7 1/2 pets out of 10. A fairly glowing review, if I do say so myself. :)

DS Review: Madagascar

Unsurprisingly, here we have another game inspired by a film. I'm not going to knock it for the reason alone because hey, there are some pretty decent games out there based on movies! This one, however, I'll have to say is pretty mediocre at best.

The plot of the game follows the film (big surprise). As such, with each level, your map is more or less a globe upon which you're running all the way around. It's not terrible or anything, but I will tell you one thing: If you want to go back to a specific level to try and collect all the unlockables? It can be a pain in the neck to find *that* particular level.

Map aside, let's talk about the graphics. Let me say here that I'm actually very impressed with the 3D here! For a DS game of all things, this is definitely one of the better 3D games I've seen yet. The font used throughout isn't the greatest - I sure wouldn't have used it if I were the designer - but it's not horrible either. It's legible, so I really don't have much room in which to complain here. I don't think a kid would ever complain about it, and as this is for ages 3 and up, I'm going to just move on here.

I would also like to say that it was refreshing to see a good old fashioned side-scroller game again! This seems to be becoming a lost art form as far as video games go, so it was refreshing to see making even a small comeback. Anyway, you play as not one, but all of the main characters. You'll be switching between a lion, a zebra, a hippo, and a giraffe. You'll be switching between characters in pretty much every level, as every character has different abilities. For instance, the lion can claw and roar (not to mention, scale walls towards the very end of the game). He's my favorite. The zebra can run very fast and squeeze through very tight spaces that nobody can fit through. The hippo can easily crush things with her weight and swim. And then, the poor gawky giraffe, Melman, pretty much got the shit end of the stick in the abilities department. (I actually HATED him at first until I discovered how invaluable his abilities actually are.) He can duck his head in the sand/rocks (which can either protect him from bees - I promised myself I WOULD NOT make an Eddie Izzard joke here!) and break through loose rocks on the ground, and he can sneeze at enemies. If you sneeze during a jump, he basically rocket launches himself skywards. There are SO many levels you cannot complete without this poor sneezy fellow. There are also a handful of levels where you play as the penguin brigade, and I personally loved those! (Then again, I also felt the penguins were the highlight of the whole film, so, I think I'm a little biased. ;))

However, I did not like the sneak scenes, where you had to creep around and try not to get caught. I know I'm overly sensitive to such things, but I was pretty much borderline having panic attacks every time I had to complete such a level. I'm sure other people liked them much more than I did, but it definitely was not for me.

The final level, where you're expected to beat the foosa, is VERY difficult...especially if you're not the most coordinated of people. You see, you must control 2 characters at the same time with seperate key sets. It's VERY confusing, and I'd imagine frustrating for a little kid. The multiplayer functionality only plays this mode, and if you haven't reached that level in the game yet to begin with, chances are you'll have an even harder time of it...as will your gaming partner.

I'm feeling generous today. I'm going to go ahead and rate this game a 7 out of 10 foosas. The game should probably be quite enjoyable if you have a child that's about 10 or under who enjoyed the Madagascar film.

DS Review: Hannah Montana

With how decent the second Hannah Montana game in the DS series was, I guess I should have known the previous one wouldn't have been as good. (I mean, they had all those nasty kinks to work out!) In this case, had I have played this one first, I'd have probably never bothered with the sequel at all.

The graphics are about the same in this one as the sequel. The charicatures of each character are absolutely adorable though; to the point where I found myself wanting to whip out a pencil and some paper and trying to draw them all. (I resisted such temptation.) Many of the characters in this game you'll discover are originals who never have (and probably never will, now that the series is winding down) appeared on the show. Some of them are cute, some are annoying, and some are complete (and I hesistate in using such a word in a review about a children's game) complete and total bitches who seemingly have nothing better to do with their lives than block Miley's pathways and insult her until a verbal showdown ensues each time. Now, while I think it's a great thing to encourage girls to stand up for themselves in the face of a bully, I don't think it's such a great thing to teach girls to be absolutely catty and have snotty attitudes when presented with confrontation. (But that's just me. I'm notorious for reading too much into everything.)

The music in this game gets really grating after a while. They're not even Hannah songs. It's just generic video music played on a digital electric guitar. (Not so awesome.) I played most of it with the volume all the way down, to be honest.

The plotline to this game is extremely weak. Alright, how many episodes of the show have revolved around someone threatening to make public Hannah's secret identity? Right...... Now, the whole game revolves around that. Which doesn't seem so bad, when you play through to what you think is the end...and then find out that you spent several hours only completing one mission, and that you'll be completing 2 more now that are both also exactly the same thing. Had I not been in good faith that at some point, this game's plot would HAVE to improve, I'd of stopped playing at the end of the first mission. But, being a good little gamer girl, I played right through to the end anyway.

You'll also find that, more than anything else, 90% of this game is spent traveling back and forth and back again between destinations, just doing favors for other people to get information out of them. While I wouldn't have been opposed to them doing this maybe even with every other person, they did this with virtually EVERYONE. And when you have to keep traveling all over the map to get to them, it becomes a real pain in the neck real fast. It wouldn't be nearly as bad if the controls for the game were better, but instead, to move? You tap where you want Miley to go. And tap-tap-tap-tap-tap you do until you're convinced you'll be contracted carpal tunnel soon, and that this game puts Elite Beat Agents to shame with just how much tapping is involved.

My biggest issues with the controls weren't the navigation itself, per se, but two little things: the designs you have to draw to enter most doors, and the giving of items to characters (which you have to do all throughout the game). With the doors, you have to draw the design sometimes about 10 times in a row to satisfy the sensors in the game, and then out of the blue, you'll get one on the first try - misleading you to believe that hey, I'm getting the hang of this! - and then be right back at square one on the next door. As I view myself as somewhat of an artist, this REALLY irked me. It shouldn't be this hard to draw a damn "S" shape (or a triangle, or whatever other shape they want on any given door) to the game's satisfaction! Then with giving items to characters, same thing. You'll select the correct item, you'll click on "Give", then you'll tap the person you want to give it to. Then here comes Lilly, telling you that you need to give so and so this item. Uh, what? I just did! So you do it again, and again, and eventually you'll get it through, but it's anybody's guess how long it will take. (I almost gave up on this game just when it came time to give the first item - the Hannah sunglasses - to Oliver because of this very reason.)

Another thing you'll be finding yourself doing quite a bit of is skateboarding from place to place. You don't do this *EVERY* time you travel; just when you need to get somewhere quickly. (Which ironically, takes you more time, because you have to guide Lilly's skateboard down the street and make sure she doesn't hit any debris, whereas 'normal' traveling just involves clicking a destination and you're there.) It's not really that terrible or anything, it's just time consuming. You don't really control Lilly....rather, you pick up trash, scare away cats, break up big rocks, cover manholes, and scoot around traffic cones to avoid hazards. And you do this until she arrives. If you hit 3 items, you're out. I'm not too sure what happens if you do, since I never did, but I guess you have to do it again or something. It moves a little slowly for my tastes, but then again, I have to remind myself that this game is for ages 3 and up, and I'm used to Need For Speed. Can't really have something that difficult in a kid game...

Overall, this game just didn't have the charm or the appeal that its sequel did. I'll give it 4 Mileys out of 10...just because I'm feeling generous tonight. I have a feeling that even the biggest of Hannah/Miley fans won't be too in love with this title, though.

DS Review: Imagine: Wedding Designer

Up til now, I've currently reviewed 2 other Imagine titles; Master Chef and Animal Doctor. Given how much I loved one and practically despised the other, I wasn't even entirely sure what to expect this time around. As it turns out, it seems to be somewhere in between the two.

Wedding Designer is not a bad game. I just feel like the game was hastily made while the company realized it was hot and putting out hit after hit, so they wanted to make sure to strike while the iron was still hot. As a result, the game feels a little half-baked. There's only 6 weddings the game details doing the planning for. To complete all of these back to back literally only takes a few hours. (Compare this to the nearly non-stop playing of the other two games that I did, and this really feels like a pittance as far as gaming time is concerned.) There really should have been more challenges, but that's neither here nor there.

You get a selection of different brides of different nationalities and backgrounds who each have different wedding requests to which you must oblige. With each bride, you must design her wedding invitations, the wedding attire for she and her bridal party (consisting of the groom, her parents, the best man, maid of honor, ring bearer, and flower girl), the venue, her bedroom at home, give she and the groom makeovers for their everyday appearance, as well as choosing the right officiant and wedding party members... all to her liking. (Talk about a bridezilla!) You gauge the bride's happiness by her facial expression with each detail you pick out - if she's happy, she'll smile, and if she's unhappy, she'll pout. Upon completing all tasks, you're whisked away to the wedding in a white limousine, where you'll be playing photographer to the event. You must snap whatever the bride requests in the style she wants it, too. Each successful wedding unlocks new items, music, makeup and furniture for future weddings as well as the next level's bride.

Upon completing all 6 weddings, you still have the option of replaying each level as well as playing in Free Mode; where you design your own bride and wedding without worrying about demands. It's all up to you. This doesn't really accomplish much of anything but unlock some more items. There's also an "Exchange" mode, but as I don't know anybody else with the game, I have no clue how it works.

The gameplay is simple enough to where even the youngest of girls can successfully play this game. It's probably better that way - this title is bound to hold the interest of youngsters longer than that of adults. (It's still fun in small doses, though.) I would figure the best target audience for this game would be little girls who are about to be in a wedding party.

I must say that the makeup selections in the bridal boutique remind me a LOT of a really old pc game from 1997, "Barbie Magic Hair Styler" (which was a full makeover game, not just hair styling). So I had a little nostalgia there.

I do have a few issues with the game, though. (Don't I always?) The controls are a little iffy in their accuracy. I even re-calibrated my DS to make sure that that wasn't my problem, but it still acted the same way. (I tried it in my sister's DS too. It did the same thing.) It has a bad habit of highlighting the wrong object while you're trying to select one nearby.

The 3-D graphics in this game are still lousy, but not anywhere NEAR as bad as the ones in Animal Doctor. The 2-D graphics are incredibly cute though, and surprisingly detailed for as cartoony as they are.


Some of the background music is more tolerable than others. Certain tunes are very pleasant, while others (i.e. the music in the groom's house...it's so SHRILL) are nearly unbearable. The music store is probably the most difficult part in the game - not for actually being hard, but because while the volume on certain tracks is quite loud, others are practically inaudible even with the volume turned all the way up. (I found popping in a pair of earbuds helped.) I did like their selection of wedding tunes, though. The only other problem was the controls on the music player.

My biggest issue in this game has nothing to do with the game's quality; rather, it has to do with the subliminal messages that certain aspects of the game puts across. For as demanding as the brides are of every single detail in their weddings, they ALSO are just as picky about their groom's appearances. We're not just talking hair and clothes... I mean actual facial features. This puts across an idea of superficiality, and to judge whether or not you like someone based on their looks. (It may also be putting across the idea that plastic surgery is needed for any 'imperfections'.) Not to mention, if a woman is controlling EVERYTHING about their man, right down to what they're allowed to wear in their everyday lives? This seems like unhealthy relationship material to me. It's very controlling and possibly obsessive. I know, I know, I'm reading WAAAAY too much into what's supposed to be a simple children's game, but these are things we need to take into consideration too, you know?

One more question: since when does a wedding planner play personal fashion consultant/interior designer to these people's homes?

I'm going to rate this game a 5 out of 10 blushing brides. Some might lean for a bit higher, others lower. I'd give it a better rating if this particular game hadn't been so short.

DS Review: Imagine: Animal Doctor

Having enjoyed Imagine: Master Chef as much as I did, I had quite high expectations for this game to be more of the same. Lord, I couldn't have been more wrong on this one.

The vast differences can be seen immediately upon starting the game. Whereas Master Chef had an adorably cartoonish feel to its animation style, this game tried too hard to go in the opposite direction to jump the 3-D bandwagon...and failed miserably. All the animals look relatively the same aside from coloring (which, might I add that I had issues with the idea of a bunny having bright blue eyes?), and the humans in the game look downright pitiful. HOW was this made by the same designers? It doesn't even look remotely similar! That was my first strike I held against the game.


My next issue with this game is that it is devoid of pretty much any plot, other than you have opened a veterinary clinic on your grandparents' land. Grandfather never leaves the shed and his only purpose is to build your animal pens; your cousin Eric lives and adores cleaning up after the animals (what a sad, sad existence...), and Grandmother.... Well, I'm not entirely sure why she's there. Seemingly her only purpose is to help you dye your hair.


You will notice almost immediately just how awkward the controls in this game are. I found it easier to rely on the keypads rather than the stylus to move around the map, but this doesn't particularly help you in caring for or diagnosing your animals. Another strike against the game.

You will progress through 5 different types of animals: cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, and pigs. Yes, that's right, pigs. As in, what bacon comes from. This seemed a little odd to me, all things considered, but then again... You DO appear to be living on a farm in this game, so I guess pigs aren't so strange. (The sheer volume of pigs that come in to be treated is mind-boggling though.) What I wonder is, if they can have barnyard animals like pigs and horses, why not go the whole nine yards and include cows and chickens too? Add a little dimension to the game! But no, you're limited to these five, and with a very unfair pricing system at that of how much you get paid per treatment. Cats are worth $1000 each, dogs are $2000, rabbits are $3000, pigs are (I think) $5000 and horses are $7000. Let me let you in on a little something, as if it weren't already obvious....This is nowhere NEAR the prices of treatment for real animals of each of these species. Not even the horses (and I would know - I'm privileged enough to live on a ranch). While we're on the subject of horses, may I also point out that I don't think the creators of this game have ever so much as really ever brushed a horse? This made itself obvious to me in two ways: One, they listed the brush as a toy (and a sugar cube was the other). Second, the style in which you're forced to brush the horses in (if you want it to do any good, anyway) is not even CLOSE to how you would brush a real horse. This annoyed me greatly.

The actual veterinary scenes in the game are unfortunately too brief and don't do a very good job of representing the actual diagnostic process. Yes, I can see where a parent might be concerned about too much realism in this area, but I've seen many other similar titles over the years handle this quite gracefully; they allowed you to choose which tests to conduct to help make a proper diagnosis, and they also gave a little overview into what each tool does - therefore making this an educational experience as well. Apparently, that's wishful thinking in this game, as it only gives you your set tests you're going to conduct on each pet, doesn't explain at all what the tools are or what they're doing to each pet, and to make things even more confusing? The tests that do get conducted don't even necessarily have a thing to do with the ailments these pets have. Add this on top of the actual conducting of quite a few of these tests being very awkwardly controlled (I never did quite manage to figure out how to successfully master the heart chart, and had great difficulties with focusing the microscope), and the vet part of the game becomes downright dreaded.

So then you move on to what you would assume to be the treatment phase. Guess what? There's NO treatment you administer here. None. Instead, you spend easily 90% of your game time in this game feeding, watering, petting, and cleaning up after each animal. And...that's it. Literally. There is nothing else. The pet eventually heals, you send it home, you get your money, and then the cycle restarts with a new pet. Does this sound dull? Perhaps that's because it is. You can buy two toys for each animal, but as they don't even help your pet heal, they're a complete waste of time - something that you'll be very tight on once you get rolling and have all your pens open with the demands of each pen. It is EXTREMELY repetitive, almost to the point of becoming maddening after a while (especially with the same sound effects going off every few seconds...BUT you need to leave the sound on so you can hear the reception bell!) and ends up making the whole game feel like a chore. I can understand the makers wanting to instill a sense of responsibility, but in the approach they took with it, they also took pretty much all the fun out of it. It loses its appeal VERY quickly.

You also get to purchase items to decorate your house and office, but since you neither get to arrange this new furniture nor use it for anything, it seems pretty much like a huge waste of time. Then again, pretty much the whole game is, because - SPOILER ALERT! - there is no real ending to the game. Once you hit a 100% reputation rating, you've done everything you can in the game. You can continue to treat animals anyway just "for fun", but what's the point? It took me about a day to reach 100%... Let's put it this way: I think you might feel more accomplished with dumping out a box of toothpicks and counting every last one than completing this game. I almost have to wonder, given the other titles in this series... Did they make this game so boring to make young girls shy away from a "real" job to pursue one of the more stereotypically female jobs presented in the series? It's probably a coincidence, but it is something to think about.

My verdict on this one is just to skip it. There's a TON of vet and animal games out on the DS market; this is just one of the lesser quality ones. Which I must say is a disappointment, given this is a game from Imagine. This title gets 3 out of 10 balls of yarn.

DS Review: Strawberry Shortcake - Strawberryland Games

I didn't go into reviewing this title expecting much, and it turns out that I was pretty accurate in my assumptions. This has got to be one of THE crummiest titles I have EVER had the misfortune of wasting my time playing just for the sake of reviewing.

I thought I'd try this one out just for the nostalgia factor if nothing else, because this is VERY toddler-oriented. 3+.... Yeah. About that? Guess what. There's no way in HELL a 3 year old could successfully win this game.

For example, the first game is the Licorice Leap. You place down gumdrops in the river as jump points for either Pupcake or Custard (your choice) to leap upon from point to point, with the aim of trying hard not to land in the water. You ALSO must try to get first place amongst the other contestents. THIS is the part that proves to be impossible. And seeing as the aim of the game is to "win first place fair and square", it poses quite a problem. Whose genius idea was it to develop a game for toddlers that's so frustrating, it's bound to make them cry? It's sick!

The music is maddening and the graphics are a JOKE. People got paid to make this?

Seeing as I couldn't even beat that first game (and I tried for about a WEEK), how is a little kid supposed to do this? Oh yeah - they can't. Gee, I can't imagine WHY this game was a limited production release...

This game gets a measley 1/2 of a strawberry. I'd suggest that you definitely do NOT waste your money (or your time) on this one.

DS Review: The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure

I'm not gonna lie - I've always been a big geek for the Little Mermaid. (I blame my affinity for long-haired redheads almost entirely on her.) I've probably had every different variation for every system of the Little Mermaid games - she pales second only to Snow White for me as far as Disney princesses go, and there's never really been any Snow White games (save for a tiny pixelated handheld LCD game). So it comes as no surprise that I'd naturally *have* to try this one out.

It's a charming little game with a cute storyline. You're sent out by King Triton to help figure out what is causing these massive sea quakes, and to help the inhabitants of the ocean that have been affected by them. Each victim has its own mini game that you have to play on different parts of the ocean map; none of which are particularly difficult, but help flesh out and further the storyline.

You collect tiger shells all throughout the game to help towards Flounder learning new tricks - but these tricks are little more than useless unlockable easter eggs, because they aren't really good for anything other than just being cute.

It takes a little while to get used to the preciseness of the stylus controls for certain activities, such as digging up the human treasures. Speaking of which, does anyone else find it curious that, despite being under the sea for as long as these artifacts supposedly have, all of them polish up into perfect white, silver, or platinum? I would have figured the seawater would make them lose their lustre. Your thoughts?

Which brings me to the singing treasure chests... Trust me, if you have a little girl that's playing this game, this is likely their favorite part in the entire game. For an adult playing this game through? It just proves to make you feel silly and question what you're really doing, playing a Little Mermaid game. One thing I found helps with this feeling is, rather than singing the notes? Hum them instead. Granted, it has a harder time registering higher pitches through hums, but it can be done. (I did it.)

The music is actually very pleasant and cheerful, and not to the point where one feels the need to turn the sound down/off. It was very reminiscent of the Caribbean music in the movie. The graphics in the game aren't exactly terrific, but for the age-range this game is aimed at, they're more than passable. The 2-D graphics on the top screen remind me of the oldschool DOS/Windows 3.x games, whereas the 3-D graphics look like they're from about 1995. Still, they're not bad, and especially for being on such a small screen, I think they're okay.

I completed the entire game, beginning to end, over the course of just a few hours. It's pretty darn easy, but there's enough of a challenge there to keep a girl's interest while at the same time, letting her feel special for her easy accomplishments. I liked the game for its nostalgia factor. It brought back many happy memories from my childhood of playing in swimming pools with my sister and cousins, all pretending to be mermaids. I'm also showing my age here, but it also reminded me of a verrrrry old game, "Treasure Cove", which I loved.

I'll generously give this game a rating of 7 out of 10 seashells. Definitely one of the better Ariel titles out there.

DS Review: Pokemon Dash

I'm going to admit something here: Despite my age, I never got into the Pokemon craze when it was big. My siblings did, but I guess I was a year or two too late to miss the boat or something. I was never able to understand the appeal, try as I might.

Even so, time and time again, I found myself guilty of "trying out" their video games. Just to see what they're like, I'd justify it. They weren't entirely bad - nothing as skull-numbingly boring as the show, or worse still, the movie.

So as you can imagine, I was a little skeptical in trying out this one. But in a pleasant act of serendipity, I was surprised to find that this game really isn't entirely all that bad!

No knowledge of Pokemon is needed to play this game. (Which is definitely a plus, as I probably would've been doomed otherwise.) All you need to know is how to follow a map. Easy enough, yes? The premise of the game is that you, along with about 5 other Pokemon each race, go hurdling through different race courses, collecting pokeballs. Whoever collects them all in the correct order first is the winner. Pretty simple stuff. It's just a cute little racing game.

Different terrain conditions affect your speed in a fairly realistic way. For example, you may be zooming along the paved roads, but when it comes to running across a desert? This slows you down considerably (unless you get a power up). You drown in the ocean and in swamps, you get hurt if you fall down on ice, etc. I actually like this concept VERY much. It's overlooked in many games, and they tend to defy physics. Not this one!

When running through the maps, you may find the overwhelming urge to shove your fellow Pokemon down and get them out of the way. (C'mon, you know you want to!) Go ahead. It lets you. Not very good sportsmanship, sure, but it happens in real life too. You're not penalized for it in this game, though.

The one thing I didn't care for too much in this game was the dependence on maps. Oh, sure, yes - this is a valuable life skill that kids should definitely know how to do. But perhaps it would be a little better if the crucial items, such as balloons were listed accurately on the maps. Half the time, I'd run to where one was listed on the map - and there was nothing there! Therefore wasting my time and usually costing me first place.

The music and sound effects of the game are pretty typical of any Pokemon game. Not terrible, but if you try and play this game for hours, you might do better to turn the sound down, as the constant cries of "PIKA PIKA!" are bound to drive you nuts sooner or later. (I went to bed that night with the annoying little Pikachu's voice still ringing in my head.)

The English for the dialogue in the game is pretty good. There were a couple of "Engrish"-type mistakes that I noticed, but that's okay. They made me giggle. I won't judge too harshly because they amused me so much.

There were a couple of things in the game that made me sit back a little and go "What?" about. One of them being, when you first start up the game and it comes to the opening screen, your little Pikachu will come running up to you. It appears that there are no buttons with which to start this game, but - what's this? Pikachu's pointing to his cheek. ("What's that, Pika? Timmy's fallen down the well?") You'll find that apparently, his blushing red cheeks double as buttons that bring up the menu. Why is this? I couldn't rightly tell you, because I have NO idea. Seems a little strange, doesn't it? Also, when you finish a level of races, when your Pikachu is either up on the stand holding his new trophy or if he's sulking because he didn't get one, you can pull on his various body parts and stretch him like silly putty. Oooooookay then...

Upon finishing all the levels in the Grand Prix (which took me approximately 3 hours - including pauses I took to attend to my internet affairs), it rolls the credits and appears to be game over. What? That's it? Seriously?? But no, when you come back to the menu screen, it has unlocked "Hard GP" and "Special". There's still one more button that has a question mark over it that's yet to be unlocked. (I haven't gotten that far yet.)

The game isn't exceptionally hard (which does make it kid-friendly), but it also poses just enough of a challenge to keep you coming back without pissing you off. It seems more like a game you'd play during a long drive or flight just to pass the time than to get seriously into, but it does work nicely as a time-killer. I will say that, even on the regular Grand Prix mode, it took me several tries of playing the Red Cup all the way through just to get a passing score on it. I guess that makes up for the other levels all being so simple.

The way the game is designed, I think that, given when the game was released, the point of the game was more of the novelty of using the stylus as a tool than creating a really intricate, involved game. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. If you have a little one who's just gotten a DS, this would actually probably be a really fun game for them! Just make sure you thoroughly clean your touch screen and your stylus of any dirt or dust first, or else you'll probably scratch up your screen.

Overall, the game was quite a bit better than I expected, I have to admit! (Although, I couldn't quite stop imagining Pikachu as being Ling-Ling from Drawn Together the whole time I was playing it.) I give this game 6 1/2 Pikachus.... Give or take away another half depending on whether you're actually a Pokemon fan or not.

DS Review: Animaniacs - Lights, Camera, Action

Ahhh, Animaniacs. I remember these guys! I spent a good portion of my childhood sat in front of the TV, watching their wacky show. My sister and I even had the old Konami game of their show for the oldschool Gameboy... Neither of us ever managed to get past the first level (or was it the first world? I can't remember...) in it, but it sure didn't keep us from trying!

Well, I regret to inform that, in playing this game, I had many flashbacks to that old Konami game. Despite putting the difficulty on Easy, and despite this game supposedly being designed for ages 3 and up (I imagine there's got to have been quite a few toddlers who've gotten frustrated with the darn thing and thrown their DSes across the room in anger upon hitting the inevitable "I CAN'T DO IT!!" point)... I wasn't able to get past the second level. (Then again, at 1 in the morning, it's easy to get frustrated over stupid stuff and give up too easily. I'll give it another go in the morning. Doubt it'll change my verdict on this game much, though.)

My initial reaction upon turning the game on was that the graphics didn't strike me as particularly fetching, and the music left a lot to be desired. (That said, you gotta appreciate a good digitized comedic accordion, even if merely for the fact that I can't think of anyone else who's used one in a video game. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.) These things can easily be lived with and ignored, though. What I'm about to touch upon next though may just be a personal pet peeve, but it was an absolute fatal flaw in the game for me.

The font used for the text in the game is absolutely hideous, and nearly unreadable. I think they were trying to come up with a font that looks appealing to kids and looks somewhat like childish handwriting, but through the eyes of an adult, it just looks sloppy and amateur. I asked the resident 10-year-old of our household what her thoughts on it were, and she said: "It looks stupid." (Out of the mouths of babes.) Let's put it this way: This font makes Comic Sans look like the Mona Lisa of (silly) fonts by comparison. Trying to speed read this font is no easy task; half the letters have a backwards tilt to them, and half don't. (It's a dyslexic's nightmare.) Add on top of this that the game only allows you two lines of dialogue at a time, and it's just a mess.

Crappy fonts aside, the storyline itself is also weak. I'm fairly sure that all the Animaniacs video games' plots are always recycled. They're all more or less the same thing. Make your way through film lots while making films. -yawn- Is it over yet? Not to mention, the dialogue tries FAR too hard to be funny...and still falls flat. These writers didn't do justice to the original show in the least.

The directions for how to play each level are confusing. You're basically left on your own to find where the director is camped out in each level (but watch out, he's usually in about 5 places at once) and gives you tips on how to complete the mission. Now you have an even smaller space to try and read your text in, and still in that jacked up font. Not fun. Not fun at all. The hints they give you are fairly vague as well. You're left to mostly figure things out on your own - which unfortunately, in this game, is not too easy.

Your remaining time per level is not measured in minutes or second, but rather, in how many remaining film reels you have left in which to complete your scene. By collecting additional film reels, you get more time. Makes sense enough. These film reels don't last very long each though, so you have to keep finding more just to continue the level. This annoys me, because I'd rather have one set amount of time from beginning to end and know what I have to work with. But, as the entire game is basically played out as though your character is in a movie, they had to make it all movie-themed.

Along with this movie theme for the game, along the bottom edge of the screen (both of your screen, and of the "movie" screen) are a row of movie theatre seats, along with the silhouettes of several viewers. The interact with your "film" to an extent; pointing to the screen, laughing, applauding, etc. I'm not entirely certain if they serve a real purpose or not or if they're just there as a distraction, but it's a little bit interesting to note, anyway. However, the way they're drawn reminds me of the old episodes of MST3K I used to watch. Which is great for nostalgia value, but...

Aiming projectiles in this game is NOT an easy task. I thought that maybe it was just me at first, being accustomed to the old school, 2-D video game worlds, and not being used to moving around and aiming in 3-D. Apparently, this is not so much the case. The aiming of the projectiles is so touchy that you might as well have cross hairs to help you aim, because if you're a hair off, you miss. And with the movements being as touchy as they are in this game, it makes accuracy quite difficult. And, honestly - who throws apples as a weapon? (Although, to defeat the boss at the end of the first level, you have to throw dog bones at him. He is a pirate. Don't ask me how this even feasibly logically makes sense.)

The game also apparently does not have a save game function. Yes, folks, even in the days of the DS, there are still some games without a save feature. Instead, do you remember how in oldschool games, you used to get codes when you finished a level that you'd have to type in if you wanted to skip ahead to your spot again if you lost the game? How long has it been since you've seen one of those? ...That's what I thought. And this game isn't that old. What the hell? Not only that, but they have their own way of doing passwords. Their passwords do not consist of letters, numbers, colored balls, nor anything else of the sort. No, this game uses the actual characters of the game as the password characters. For example, the password for the first level (see? Reading this blog also wins you hints, here and there! ;)) goes: Dot-Yakko-Brain-Wakko-Pinky. It's definitely a different way of going about it, and you can't possibly accuse the game developers of ripping that off from another game.

Overall, the game provides little to know excitement while playing. For a game that was designed with kids in mind, it shouldn't be this complicated. At all. It's more confusing and frustrating than anything, and this is coming from an adult point of view. Where is the fun in this? I really found none. Playing this game felt like a chore.

I give this game a rating of 3 1/2 Animaniacs. (And that half is purely for using the digitized accordion.)

Edit: I tried again the following day, just to see if being fully awake would make any real difference in the playability of this game. Apparently not!

I'm still here!

A quick update: I'm still here, guys! (well, anybody that may have been reading this.) And I'm still gaming, no worries! ;) Anyway. I finally got the stylus to my DS replaced! Yaaaaaay! *wigglearms* I tried to find a pic online of the set I got, but naturally, my luck, couldn't find one. So I'll just tell you that my navy, red, and magenta styluses are quite, well... stylish!

A review is forthcoming. Stay tuned!

DS Review: Sims 2

Sims 2 for DS...what a disappointment.

Having owned Sims 2 for PC in the past, I know how the game is supposed to be played and work. So when I saw there was a DS version, I thought "Fantastic! I'll finally be able to play it again!" (My laptop has overheating issues now with anything involving the dvd drive, rendering almost all my PC games unplayable on this machine. Sigh.) Oh, if only. I knew there had to be a catch.

Right about here, you can take EVERYTHING you know about Sims 2 and throw it out the window. You do NOT own a house...nor even a plot of land to build a customizable house on. You aren't living a character's life where you raise a family and cultivate relationships. (Wasn't that the entire POINT of Sims 2 in the first place?) No, no, no...

They may as well have titled this Sims 2: Hotel Manager. In this game, you're driving along, and your car busts down in the middle of this run-down town in the middle of nowhere called Strangetown. (This is about the ONLY similarity to the PC game I found in the whole game, as there is a neighborhood on the PC version with that name.) For some reason unbeknownst to us players, WE are left in charge of running this hotel. Why? Because we showed up, that's why!

Most of the characters you'll run across and keep in your hotel are pretty much just filler material. Anyone who insists on staying up in your penthouse suite = BAD NEWS. You'll encounter the leader of the local Mafia as one of these characters, a goth girl who starts a cult in your hotel's basement and brainwashes all your other patrons, and an out of control robot who's hellbent on destroying everything and overtaking mankind. Beating these foes isn't particularly difficult - I managed to play through the whole game while multitasking numerous instant messages online. I'd say maybe it's better for a younger crowd for its simplicity, but MAN, what kind of messed up messages would it be sending to the kids?!

Oh, I almost forgot the best part. Did I mention there's aliens? Oh yeah. There's aliens. They constantly try and overtake your town to. If you get too close without vanquishing them, they'll abduct you and anal probe you. (Well okay...the anal probe thing is more of just my imagination. But they DO abduct you, and drop you off back in your manager suite, and you walk funny for a few minutes afterwards. Anal probe is implied, methinks.) It's more humorous than it is scary.

So that covers the bad guys, pretty much, without giving everything away. There's also add-ons to build onto your hotel; several restaurants, a jazz lounge where you can make music, a gym (serves no real purpose), a casino, and an art gallery where you can create your own masterpieces on the walls. (I'd of been more impressed if I could make sculptures, too.) They're interesting, I suppose, but nothing too awe-inspiring.

Overall, it's not really a bad game... It's just not what one expects when purchasing Sims 2. So, with this in mind, and rating it for exactly what it is - a highly stereotyping hotel-managing game - I'll give this game 6 1/2 Rattinators. Why Rattinators? When you play the game, you'll see soon enough.

DS Review: The Wild West

I'll admit, when I saw the title of this game, I inwardly squealed with delight. A DS game based on the old west?? It must be a dream come true! (I've always been a geek for most things western - must come from growing up on a small horse ranch.) I didn't pay much attention to the fact that on the cover, there's very obviously an alligator in cowboy regalia... why is there an alligator dressed like this? I don't know! Well, I do now. I purchased the game without bothering looking much further into it than the title alone. Big, big mistake...

Unless you're into mindless shooters, this probably isn't going to be the game for you. I've never been one to be very interested in those, so there you go. The controls are difficult and glitchy, the sound effects and music are enough to cause you to turn the sound off all the way during gameplay (which is also bad, since then you can't hear when you're being shot at), and did I mention that everyone in the game are ANIMALS? Yes. The two main characters you can pick between to play are a wolf and a cat. But they're like anthropomorphic (sp?) animals; in other words, animals made to try and look like humans. The way they went about it just screamed out "furries" to me, and that was enough to put me off of the game in and of itself right from the get-go. Every level seems to be a variation of the same thing; shooting at more animals dressed up like people who also have guns. PETA would probably have a field day with this one if they knew of its existence. I was expecting something more along the lines of a hardcore Oregon Trail.

Granted, I didn't give this game very much time before I deemed it unplayable, at least for myself. If anyone else has a different opinion of the game, please, share it with me! Because I just don't understand how this one could possibly be enjoyable.

I give The Wild West a rating of 1/2 of a pistol out of 10.

DS Review: Imagine: Master Chef

Don't let the simple (nearly generic) cover for this game fool you. This game is anything but generic! Nor is this a rip-off of Cooking Mama, which surprised me. Which one you'll end up preferring is strictly a matter of taste; if a prefer a game with a storyline (albeit a far-fetched one), this game is for you. If you'd prefer to stick entirely to the cooking, you might want to dust off the old copy of Cooking Mama again.

In Imagine: Master Chef, you play the role of a 12 year old girl named Lisa whose deepest wish is to fulfill her promise to her father that, by the time he comes home from his business trip, she'll be able to skillfully treat him to some home cooking. She confides this wish in her stuffed bunny Hopper, who she soon discovers has been possessed (but not in the bad, demonic sense) by a Moon Angel named Purianne, who intends to stay by her side and offer both encouragement and companionship the whole way. Hopper also uses her magic to bring the rest of Lisa's stuffed animals to life to keep her company as well. (I'm not sure whether to find it sweet, sad, or disturbing that a 12 year old girl is having to resort to her toys for companionship because nobody else will give her the time of day...)

Lisa's mother surprises her with cooking lessons from the world-renowned cook, Rachel Jones (is this supposed to represent Rachel Ray? I bet it is...). She guides you through each cooking lesson, giving specific instructions on how to perform each task at hand. The game was obviously designed for young children with a low tolerance for frustration, as there's no way to actually fail a level. You may get a lower score, but you can't fail. Isn't that half the fun of most games though, the frustration at losing a level and then the thrill you get when you finally pass it? I guess that's just the adult in me talking.

Speaking of the scoring for each dish, even without being able to fail, it STILL manages to frustrate me! It seems to be incredibly difficult to get the top possible score each time. Even if you make the dish look exactly like the example, right down to the garnishes - did I mention you're also graded for your garnishes? - you still won't usually get the full 120 points. I don't quite understand how they calculate the results. You're graded on how well you cook the dish, how it tastes, and the garnishes. You can earn up to 4 stars in each category, and each star is worth 10 points. The top score you can achieve is a 120 (yeah, not even an even 100). I've only managed it a few times, and I think it was luck of the draw. The garnishes are what usually screw me up. At the end of each dish, Rachel announces that it's now time for what you've been waiting for: the serve up. To be honest, I DREAD it because of having to apply those damn garnishes, knowing that no matter how much care I put into it, chances are I'll still only get 3 out of 4 stars for it!

In between the cooking exercises, you'll be able to go on walks around town with Hopper and encounter all sorts of different people. Each one adds its own different dimension of drama to the game, and although none of this is even really necessary, it's still a nice diversion from the cooking so you don't completely burn out on it. Each person you meet will give you a gift at the end of your encounter, which will go towards being able to customize your kitchen by on more piece. Unfortunately, to unlock ALL of these pieces, you must play the game over...and over...and OVER again. It took me 5 times of playing the game, beginning to end, to unlock EVERYTHING. It's immensely frustrating in and of itself, as you have to sit through tons of endless dialogue just to get anywhere. If I could improve upon the game in any one way, creating a faster way to cycle through the dialogue (or skip it completely if you've already finished the game once) would be it. The fact that after the end credits roll each time, Hopper comes back and reminds you you've only unlocked so and so percent of the items doesn't help matters any. (I think she's mocking us on purpose.)

The dialogue, although very cutesy, feels incredibly forced in places. Not exactly like when video game makers take a game that was originally in Japanese and try to transcribe it into English, no no. It's just... I don't quite know how to put into words what I want to explain here. All the "hopping" jokes get old VERY fast ("This is no hopping matter!" "You don't have to be so hopping rude!" etc.). I started to have flashbacks to that old 1980's movie, Santa Claus: The Movie. (You know, the one with Dudley Moore as the elf...) All the painful jokes about needing "elf control" or "elf confidence" and whatnot came flooding back to me. I'm sure the writers felt very clever and witty for this, but....agh. It gets on your nerves after a while (especially when you're playing the game over and over to unlock it all).

I was, however, very pleased with the style of animation in this game! It has that distinctive Japanese cartoon feel to it without being anime, which I found refreshing. (Before you send me hate mail for it, no, I have nothing against anime! I'm actually quite a fan of several shows.) And for being so simplictic, the level of detail the artists used is astounding! Right down to the very color of the tomato seeds. It all looks so simplified at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it's quite impressive that the artists were able to get so much detail in while still maintaining that simplified style. And, of course, I was amused as anything that the dad in the game looks like a Japanese version of George Harrison. ;)

For the many hours of your time (oh yes, there WILL be hours! It logs how much playtime you've spent on the game as well, and I think I ended up with about 27 hours altogether) that you'll spend on this game, the music gets stuck in your head. Badly. HORRIBLY. As I laid in bed, trying to fall asleep, I realized that I couldn't get the songs - and even some of the sound effects - to stop playing on a loop track in my head. After 2 nights of this, I decided it was time to start playing the game with the sound off. You might want to take the same advice if you start to have this problem.

The gameplay itself, although simple, took me a little bit of time to get a feel for the controls for. I often seem to have this problem though, so that might just be me. Once I figured out I was doing, I realized how easy this game actually is. It's more of a game to use for relaxing than for an actual challenge, as there isn't much that's very challenging in this entire game.

When I first began to play, on the first dish in the game, you have to wash your hands before beginning to cook, and you have to wash the dishes after you're done. Now, I groaned at having to do this - thinking this game is going to be almost as much of a hassle as real life cooking - but this is the only round in the whole game where you're required to perform these tasks. Now, for an educational game, I get mixed messages from this. On the one hand, I'm thankful I didn't have to do this before and after every dish. On the other, what kind of example is it to give kids that they only have to wash their hands and the dishes the first time they cook anything, and then never again? I'm glad that the reminder of taking such responsibility is included in the game at all, though.

Speaking of washing the dishes, this is one of the minigames in the game. Yes - Ubisoft has found a way to, at least try to anyway - make washing dishes fun. It's mostly just a race against the clock to see how many dishes you can wash in a set amount of time, but you'd be amazed how even this simple little minigame becomes quickly addictive when you're trying to beat your own score.

There's a cooking quiz minigame which, although it sounds like an easy enough concept, it's a little tricky. I've yet to score 100% yet, and this is with memorizing answers to questions I've gotten incorrect before! This minigame is educational in its approach, teaching little-known food/cooking tidbits.

The memory game Match is exactly what it sounds like. You get a bunch of face-down cards on a table, flip them over one by one, and have to match them up by memory. Simple enough concept for even a young child to play, and enough of a challenge to even keep adults playing it.

Darts sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. Even if you have good aim, it's hard to make the dart necessarily go where you want it to because of these controls. I always end up with at least 3 or 4 darts missing the wheel entirely, and only get a couple hits on the higher points sections of the wheel. It's frustrating, and that creepy puppet doesn't make matters any better. (The frog's almost as bad.)

Puzzlit is harder than it would seem to be. You get about a dozen letter tiles, much like in Scrabble on each round. On the top screen, you'll either get the silhouette of a food or kitchen utensil, or a scrambled image of either that slowly becomes clearer. The quicker you get the word spelled out, the better. You only have a few seconds to get each one though, so be careful!

Lastly, we come to my personal favorite of the minigames: Stackem DX. You take stacks of dishes (you decide how many you can handle in a single trip) and carry them across the kitchen to the sink, where you unload, run back, and grab more. The aim is to get as many dishes to the sink as possible without dropping them, and the catch is that the more plates you carry at a time, the more your stack is going to wobble and threaten to fall, costing you points and precious time. It's a fast game, but I love it.

As an added bonus, you'll find that there are real life recipes for most (if not all) of the dishes featured in this game. Pretty nifty, as I do have to say, this game does tend to inspire one to want to try cooking firsthand!

I'm going to try and not give too much away here, but I will say that the ending of the game made me cry. It's sort of weak, sure, but the first few times playing the game all the way through, even after KNOWING what happens at the end, I wept like a baby. I'm such a sap. This game KNOWS how to tug at the heartstrings. One question though that I noticed was a fairly huge inconsistency with the storyline...All throughout the game, Hopper makes a huge deal out of never being able to show her TRUE self, for she won't be able to return home to the moon afterwards if she does. I will divulge that at the end of the game, she does briefly show herself - is this a self-sabotage? You never find out for sure if she goes back to the moon or not... The wording of the ending leaves it up to debate as to whether she eventually goes back, or if she stays on earth forever. It's all a matter of interpretation.

It also took me until the third playthrough of the game to realize that during the credits of the game, those aren't just any old dishes they're showing as backgrounds while the credits roll - those are the ones I made and decorated! (I'm so slow.) I got a litte bit of a kick out of that once I noticed it.

The game has a very definite heavy Japanese influence to most of the dishes, so a lot of them are made a little differently than what we here in America tend to be used to. Still, I wouldn't be opposed to trying most of them.

Here, to spark your interest (and possibly tease your tastebuds), I'll list off all the dishes that can be made in this game:

Main Dishes:
Sunny Side-Up Eggs
Salisbury Steak
Rice Omelet
Hotcakes
Curry Rice
Spaghetti Carbonara
Japanese Pancake
Macaroni Gratin
Meat and Potato Stew
Spicy Tofu
Cream Stew
Hamburger
Meatloaf
Fried Egg Ricebowl
Spicy Pancake
Japanese Meatloaf
Thin-Sliced Pork Cutlet
Keema Curry
Chicken Doria
Creamy Omelet
Spaghetti Neapolitan

Side Dishes:
Rice
Garlic Toast
Coleslaw
Garlic Toast Caesar Salad
Colorful Salad
Apple Snow
Potato Salad with Broccoli
Cauliflower Curry Salad
Steamed Rice
Egg Fried Rice
Buttered Rice
Fried Chicken
Pizza Margherita
Lotus & Shrimp Potstickers
Banana French Toast
Cabbage Roll with Sausage
Tofu, Chicken, and Egg
Baked Apple
Pumpkin and Pork Stir-Fry
Chicken Nuggets
Tofu and Onion Miso Soup
Consomme
Custard Pudding
Strawberry Yogurt Cream
Corn Soup
Milk Gelatin and Mango
Fried Apple Pie
Exotic Pumpkin Red-Bean Soup
Potstickers
Octopus Tomato Carpaccio
Minestrone
Potato Cream Soup
Cinnamon Lassi
Coffee
Green Tea
Herbal Tea
Tea
Milk
Oolong Tea

Wow, after typing all that up, I'm feeling rather hungry. See you next time! Oh, and:

I rate this game a 7 out of 10 little Hoppers.