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Arctic Tale (DS)

Status: Stopped playing - Got frustrated
I started playing this game on Sunday 21 August, 2022  //  I stopped playing this game on: Monday 5 September, 2022
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

September 5, 2022 06:29:14 PM
I played a bit more of Chapter 1 - trying to get to Chapter 2. I met the requirements but then I had to go search for food on the ice, and kept falling through. I failed at this a few times and I tried to pay attention to see what it was I was doing wrong or misunderstanding about the game. No luck.

So, I guess I have to admit that this NatGeo kids game was simply too challenging for me! (or, that I lacked the patience to keep on trying or desire to look at a guide for an answer or solution)


August 22, 2022 11:30:38 PM
Another NatGeo game - the other one I played was March of the Penguins.

I'm going to guess that this game is also based/inspired by a documentary film (this time about polar bears, going by the game's cover). The March of the Penguins game was really a mess - if memory serves - in terms of it just not being interesting to play and having wonky controls that made things harder. So, I was not expecting much from this one and I assumed I'd play 30 minutes and go "yup, also a mess" and be done with it.

So far, that's not been the case.

The game is divided into chapters and I've only on the first one - and, it's an "open area" where you run around as a little polar bear, you have to explore the environment finding food and stuff (basically collecting things), but there are also some mini-games to complete (to get more of the things you're collecting) and you can also turn into a Fox or a Walrus (giving you access to a few more mini-games that are available around the level). It's not an "oh wow this is amazing" kind of experience - for me at least (I'm not the target audience), but it is a surprisingly more open and interesting experience than I was expecting. Yes, it's simple - not realistic and all that, but I can see kids having fun with it and being drawn into the simple gameplay and the setting. Technically it's "ok" (even considering the time) with controls being a little fiddly, animations that are a bit tricky at times, BUT - it does work and is reasonably intuitive. So far.

I'm genuinely curious to see what the next chapters have to show, which is already a major step up from what I expected. I guess so far it's a nice examples of throwing in little amounts of variety to keep things fresher and more interesting while not having to develop an insane amount of content.


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria