Sea Monsters (DS) - Reviews

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2.1.2009

I love:...that someone put effort into trying to make this an educational game, even though it's not something I'd play for long. Though the aim is not motivation for me, there are challenges of which some, I assume, might be difficult. It's a game, rather than something that blindly throws data at the 'player'....that the game doesn't apparently have an agenda, aside from teaching people about the featured creatures. It even states right at the beginning that the creatures depicted didn't necessarily coexist in the same time period.I like:...the similarities this game has with Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of Time (DC, PS2), and Aquanaut's Holiday (PSX); a meld of an underwater action game,and a low-interactivity simulation of an ocean....that you can choose different forms, eventually. Unfortunately you need to pick up all of that form's fossils beforehand. Different forms have different abilities - some are better in combat, or can access different portions of the map. There are only seven forms available and you start with one unlocked initially.I hate:...the lack of a decent aim for the player. Sea Monsters has an aim similar to games like Animal Crossing; collection. In this case, the player is supposed to pick up fossils that unlock additional bonuses for the player or, eventually, additional forms the player can take, with different abilities, and information about various prehistoric `monsters'. There are a total of 90 fossils, and I imagine most of them only provide information. As someone not particularly interested in `dinosaurs' any more, this isn't a great motivation. It's probably not great motivation for anyone who doesn't need to learn about prehistoric aquatic creatures, and it's difficult to tell exactly which creatures are in here without buying the game and checking the list....the controls. Turning in any direction is handled by the touchscreen, and unfortunately is a bit too sensitive for precision steering. Happily the game lets you lock-on to targets for attacking, as without that you wouldn't have any hope of hitting them accurately, but as this doesn't apply to things like fossils, aligning yourself properly to snag those as you swim by can be an exercise in frustration. Prolonged play would probably get a player used to the game, but it's difficult to start with....slowdown. The game visibly slows down whenever you swim in a large open area, close enough to see the sea bed and rock walls. There are also a few odd graphical glitches you get when looking at the sea bed from a distance - things that look like pink algae or seaweed or... something....the dumbed-down exploration-puzzles. Letting people choose which form to approach an obstacle with is all well and good, but directly announcing that the player needs a specific form - say, good with jumping - to proceed reduces it all to a memory problem. If I ever unlock the form that lets me jump, all I need to do is recall the spots where the game helpfully displays arrows showing I need to jump over something.Verdict:Best played without a developing headache.Beyond that, as far as edutainment goes, this game makes a decent effort. It's definitely a game, and presents the player with some challenges, such that it is possible that an unskilled player may never uncover every piece of information the game has, rather than being something a player can 'succeed' at and have information thrown at them regardless of how badly they do. It's not particularly fun, but like Aquanaut's Holiday it's good for killing five or ten minutes when you've nothing better to do, and nothing else playable in that short a time.Plenty of flaws, but not as bad as it could be.