ET Away From Home
Score: 90% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Ubisoft Entertainment Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Miscellaneous
Graphics & Sound: ET Away From Home (ETAH) has crisp 2D graphics and nice sound effects. This children's game has charming graphics that enthrall children, and pull them into the gameplay. The main screen is a simple game board, with well-defined and colorful graphics, and interesting and varied sound effects. The ET theme music plays in the background, and the children, Elliot and Gerdi, as well as ET himself, provide narration with their colorful dialog.
Gameplay: ETAH accepts up to two players, and both share the game board and participate in the various mini-games. If one player mode is selected, then the computer plays the other player. The computer unfortunately does not really participate in the game though, and just moves things along by throwing the die for its player. Players throw the die using ET's on-screen hand. After throwing the die, each player can move the number of spaces shown on the die, and if they land on a square that has a lighted spot, then can play a mini-game. These mini- games provide ET with the pieces he needs to successfully communicate with his home planet, but there are other mini-games players can randomly access that help ET not get tired, or otherwise aid him.
Difficulty: ETAH provides fun challenges for the five year-old and up audience it targets. My five and a half year-old daughter finds the game fun, but is still challenged by the gameplay. ETAH does not offer difficulty levels, but should remain challenging for children for some time.
Game Mechanics: The mouse is extensively used in ETAH, and is both easy and intuitive. Elliot and Gerdi both provide information to help kids learn the simple board game, and ET helps prod children to continue with his cute dialog. If you want a nice, safe game that doesn't include violence, and it doesn't advertise the pop culture to your kids, then consider ET Away From Home. It has sharp graphics, good sound, and solid gameplay. It's easy for younger kids, but provides ample challenges even for those bright children that pick things up easily and quickly.
-Gordy, GameVortex Communications AKA Gary Lucero
Minimum System Requirements: Windows 95/98/2000/Me/XP, PII 450 Mhz, Graphics Card capable of 640x480 and 32 bit Colour, Sound Blaster compatible card, 128MB RAM, 80MB HD Space, 8x CD-ROM   Test System: Windows XP Professional, 1 GHz Pentium III, 384MB RAM, GeForce 2 Ultra with 64MB RAM, SoundBlaster Live! Value, 32x DVD-ROM.
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