Miss Spider's Scavenger Hunt
Score: 85% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: The Game Factory Developer: Kutoka Interactive Media: CD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Family/ Edutainment
Graphics & Sound: Having reviewed a fair share of family-friendly edutainment titles in the past, I feel that I am a fairly good judge of what kids will like in a game and what learning titles they will find to hard to get into. Thankfully, Miss Spider's Scavenger Hunt falls into the former category and it hits the mark pretty well. Graphically, all of the characters, from the various Bug Buddies right down to Miss Spider herself, are large, colorful and will catch the attention of any young gamer. Much like the Didi and Ditto series (also developed by Kutoka), the world takes on a somewhat claymation feel and all of the environments are filled with detail and bright color. Audio-wise, the game is pretty good as well. Voice acting is a bit rough in places, but I think that is due mostly to translation issues. And these spots can be overlooked by the obvious enthusiasm that spills into the actor's work. It is pretty clear that the voices behind the characters were really into the job they were doing and it wasn't just some contractual, phoned-in performance.
Gameplay: Miss Spider's Scavenger Hunt's structure is straightforward and easy for any one to pick up. The game has two modes, Complete Game and Activities Only. Complete Game is the story mode where you will help four of Miss Spider's friends find all of the objects they are looking for. When you select a Bug Buddy (Shimmer, Squirt, Bounce and Dragon), you then go off into a level where you will have to fill your inventory with all of the items that buddy is looking for. At any point in the hunt, you can go back to the buddy selection screen and choose to help a different pal out without losing your progress in the other hunt. This is great if a kid starts to get a little agitated because he or she can't find that last strawberry and you want to keep them interested in the game. Just have them pick up one of the other hunts and let them keep playing. In each of the scavenger hunts, there are two activities to find. These activities help the child practice everything from numbers to letters and music. All of these unlocked activities can be played in the game's Activities Only mode. Once you have found all eight activities and beaten all of the hunts, a secret ninth activity is revealed in the Activities Only mode. This is a nice added bonus and incentive for kids to beat the game.
Difficulty: Miss Spider's Scavenger Hunt's activities have three difficulty settings that you get to choose between at the start of each activity. Simply numbered one, two and three, the differences between the settings just build upon the complexity of the questions asked. I would definitely recommend starting your child off on the first setting just to see how well he or she handles a particular task. If the kid does well, then let them bump up the difficulty the next time they play that game. As for the scavenger hunt aspect of Miss Spider, there isn't a whole lot of challenge here ... well for adults anyway. It is hard to gauge just how much trouble a kid will have with these tasks because each one will approach the hunt in a different matter. If your child is adept at picking out patterns (and noticing where those patterns change), then he/she will have an easier time than one who doesn't always see the tree from the forest.
Game Mechanics: Miss Spider's Scavenger Hunt uses a basic point-and-click interface. What really helps this game out is the easily accessible inventory and check list panels. If the player has forgotten exactly what he or she needs to look for, it is just a mouse click away. A giant leaf clearly lists all of the items that are needed to finish this particular hunt. Meanwhile, a panel that expands from the right of the screen will mark off what items the child has already picked up. By having these two lists easily accessed, it greatly reduces the chances of your little one getting frustrated because he or she doesn't know what to look for. Scavenger Hunt is a fun game that does focus a little more on the "tainment" part of edutainment, but still manages to sneak enough practice and lessons in there to keep children learning while they play through a fun game.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Minimum System Requirements: Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, Pentium II 400 MHz or higher, 128 MB RAM, DirectX compatible graphics card, DirectX compatible sound card, 12x CD-ROM drive or faster, 650 MB of Hard Disc space   Test System: Alienware Aurora m9700 Laptop, Windows XP Professional, AMD Turion 64 Mobile 2.41 GHz, 2 GB Ram, Duel NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS 256MB Video Cards, DirectX 9.0c
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