E.T. Escape From Planet Earth
Score: 80% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: NewKidCo Developer: Saffire Media: Cart/1 Players: 1 Genre: Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: One has to be fairly brave to release an E.T. game after the legendary creation for Atari that ended up lining landfills all over America. Luckily, NewKidCo does the little alien proud with Escape From Planet Earth for Game Boy Color. Sure, we're all oogling the GBA graphics these days, but for the kind of game this is, it doesn't suffer one bit by the less powerful GBC. For a puzzle game, Escape From Planet Earth has plenty of eye candy. E.T. and Elliot bicycle around looking for puzzles to solve, and roll through towns, jumping over fences and using E.T.'s levitation powers to take the bike over obstacles. When you enter into a puzzle, the scene changes to show E.T. and sometimes Elliot in a maze or similar setting where they'll need to gather a bottle cap or a piece of machinery they can use to build the equipment E.T. needs to 'phone home.' These aren't set up like stale, Pac-Man mazes, but look like factories, parks or whatever E.T. and Elliot were exploring when they got off their bikes. The graphics and music here fall into somewhat of a primitive vein, but good enough on both fronts to get the job done. The little icons that represent power-ups or items show up clearly and sometimes animate to make them easy to spot.
Gameplay: Although it's billed as a puzzle game, don't think that Escape From Planet Earth is some kind of Tetris or Bubble Bobble type of joint. To help E.T. escape, you'll solve lots of little puzzles that are a mix of twitch reflexes and logic, mostly from a top-down perspective that differs considerably from any Platformer or side-scrolling Action game. As the game begins, you will learn about power-ups E.T. can use to take him across obstacles or reach blocked areas, and eventually find some that will let him avoid enemies or 'freeze' them briefly. Each powerup gets a broad treatment with consecutive puzzles that require you to use one tactic in increasingly challenging ways. In this way, a skill is introduced and you have time to master it before another one is thrown at you. There are always second chances if you get stuck, and you can restart a level at any time. Young gamers may not recognize at first that Escape From Planet Earth doesn't protect them from using a limited power-up at the wrong time and blowing their chance to solve a puzzle, since many games protect you from yourself. In places where you may only have one or two chances to get it right, the fact that each puzzle is relatively short cuts down on frustration. After solving puzzles and gathering items, you can take them to trade for equipment you need to build E.T.'s communicator by visiting treehouses. The different types of puzzle encompass teamwork, logic, matching and straight coordination. You'll see in places that enemies are all over the place, and simply avoiding them is all you have to do to get a bottle cap and escape. Many times, the name of the puzzle is a giveaway for strategy, telling you what you need to do to win. Other puzzles require you to switch between E.T. and Elliot to solve them, and since both Elliot and E.T. have unique abilities, these puzzles end up being some of the most interesting and difficult. With power-ups handy, many puzzles require you to use the right tool in the right place, and this may mean taking one of several possible routes through a maze or area. I can imagine that for very young gamers, this game will provide a great way for parents to talk through the hard levels and do some creative problem solving. There are over 100 individual puzzles set in over 50 environments, so you'll have lots of head-scratching challenges to work through before collecting all the equipment needed to get E.T. home.
Difficulty: Everyone will have their favorite style of play and some puzzles will seem harder or easier depending on your personal style, but nothing is aimed at an age group above 9 or 10, so don't think this is aimed at nostalgic 20-somethings who remember Drew Barrymore before she went over to The Dark Side. To be sure, some puzzles will take real brainpower. Especially the teamwork sections can require good planning and organization, not to mention a good understanding of how to identify obstacles uniquely suited to one of the two characters. What sophistication in graphics may be lacking here, the level of challenge is certainly on par with most other games available for this age group on any console. As any retro gamer knows, it doesn't have to look pretty to be difficult.
Game Mechanics: Escape From Planet Earth introduces each new skill and teaches the controls through the gaming interface, so there's very little time needed with the manual before kids just jump in to play. Different control schemes are present for Elliot and E.T. riding the bike, E.T. alone, and E.T. with Elliot. Obviously, the D-Pad moves characters or the bike around. E.T. helps the bike jump, with his special powers. When E.T. goes out on his own, he mostly just has whatever he can pick up in a level to use. You'll see little icons flashing at times when E.T. can collect a power-up, and he uses them by just a press of the button. For timed skills, like Invisibility, you'll see E.T. flashing to signify that he's using the power or has it available, and with pick-ups that have a one-time use you just have to be sure you use what you have since there's not any kind of inventory. The fact that E.T. can't carry more than one power-up at a time makes the puzzles more interesting, since you have to really think about the order in which to do things. You'll pick a name at the beginning for saving games, and it is easy to step away and then get right back into things, since the big map of where you've solved puzzles and still have some to solve is updated visually and maintained. This is quality stuff, and don't let the fact that it may not have flashy graphics fool you into thinking there isn't some great puzzle action and substance here. With the re-release of E.T. the movie on DVD and VHS coming soon, a whole new generation of kids will be rediscovering a classic. Thankfully, we finally have a good videogame to go with the film.
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock
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