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Tarzan Activity Center
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Graphics & Sound:
The graphics are adorable and fairly well-animated. There are also numerous clips from the actual Tarzan movie sprinkled about and the player can also choose to listen to 3 of the movie's theme songs. Sound effects are handled nicely and there are some kickin' tunes just waiting to be created in the "Trash The Camp" level. There are tons of voice clips, most memorably of Rosie O'Donnell as Terk, which I got a real kick out of. Disney uses aesthetics to draw the player in, but don't worry. Once you're in, there's plenty of gameplay to keep you there for hours.
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Gameplay:
Man, I don't know where to start. This title is so jam-packed with mini-games and activities, that your kids (and you for that matter) will be glued to the computer for hours. Tarzan's Jungle Tumble starts you off as baby Tarzan, avoiding baby leopards while cleaning up the treehouse. It's very simplistic, but tons of fun. When baby Tarzan is cornered by a baby leopard, he can squirt them in the face with his bottle and slip by while they are cleaning themselves. If they catch him, they lick his face and you lose a "life". I like the way it's handled, with violence completely absent. It's quite refreshing. As you progress through levels, difficulty increases. Then you "graduate" to boy Tarzan with a whole new set of levels, and then finally to man. Then there's "Terk and Tantor's Power Lunch", which is basically a "Breakout" type of game, only you have control of the ball while it is in motion to make things easier. Great fun! Then there is "Trash The Camp", where you can select certain instruments for the monkeys to play and create your own songs, which can then be recorded. Next is "Jungle Journal", where you can create pictures with pre-rendered character "stamps", textures and backgrounds, which can then be printed out or emailed to friends. There's also a sticker section for creating Tarzan stickers. Then there's "Fetch The Sketch", a delightful memory game. The cool thing about this mini-game is that the player is awarded an info card upon winning a level. There are 50 cards in all, each one describing a particular animal. This is edutainment at its best. Kids are having so much fun, they don't even realize how much they are learning.
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Difficulty:
All of the controls are pretty simplistic and easy to pick up on. Of course, the early levels are a breeze, but there's plenty of challenge if you are good enough to progress. It's suggested age group is 4-8 years and that is taken into consideration. But I'm a little older than that and I had a blast with this game. It certainly kept me entertained for many hours.
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Game Mechanics:
The keyboard commands are extremely easy. Basically, its just the arrow keys and "P" for pause, and the mouse is also used. There are no complicated moves during the mini-games, basically just side to side and climb up/down. Kids should have no trouble at all sitting down at the PC and playing almost immediately. This game is an excellent diversion for those long summer days. Highly recommended.
Kid's Input:
- Colin, age 6, played for an hour and a half and had a blast. He has little experience playing on a computer and had some trouble with the controls of the different games, but did well after some coaching. His favorite game was Jungle Tumble (because of the baby leopards) and his least favorite were the musical ones. He also liked Fetch The Sketch, but had to have help to figure it out.
- Audrey, age 8, played for 2 hours. She liked Terk and Tantor's Power Lunch the most and her least favorites were the musical ones.
- Katie, age 9, played for an hour. Her favorite part was Fetch the Sketch and her least favorite part was Terk and Tantor's Power Lunch because she thought it was too easy.
- Madison, age 5, played for 2 hours. She liked the Jungle Tumble the best, although she had problems maneuvering the arrow keys. Her least favorites were the musical ones. She watched them briefly, but, as with the others, was too anxious to play the games to listen to the whole song.
Beth, age 32, played for an embarrassing amount of time and loved all of it. She liked that the bonus cards are educational. None of the children made it that far, but they all worked toward it.
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows 95/98, P133+, 16MB Ram, 20MB Hard Drive space, 4X CD Rom, 16 bit DirectX sound card, 256 color DirectX compatible video card, keyboard, mouse |
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Test System:
P200, 64MB Ram, 16X CD Rom |
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