| Introduction
The same animation team who produced the wonderful,
award winning, Antz and Shrek, now brings us SPIRIT.
DreamWorks, however, have not yet enjoyed the same success
in the handheld market as they have in the box office;
neither of the Shrek titles (Fairytale Freakdown for
GBC and Swamp Kart Racer for GBA) have been particularly
inspiring. Every company does, however, expect to have
hits and misses so we should never pre-judge a title
on past performance. SPIRIT though, is an odd concept
for a game to start with and the fact that it mainly
deals with horses will surely instantly narrow its appeal...
or will it?
GamePlay
The gameplay has you indulging in two of the main
themes that run through the movie namely - taming and
nurturing a horse and exploration. Before it begins
you need to decide who you want to play; a male or female
Native American and then you're off. The first level
takes place in a reasonably small area and it's here
that the player is introduced to the lengthy list of
controls and how to use them. You'll also be given some
simple tasks to complete such as collecting food and
water and finding a horse. This is where your nurturing
skills come in, as you'll need to feed and water the
horse, in order to gain trust, before you can mount
it and start to explore the surrounding areas.
Exploring is task based so when you encounter one
of the many animals scattered around they'll ask you
to collect a series of objects before they allow you
to pass. You'll also have obstacles to overcome and
where jumping over rivers is reasonably simple, avoiding
some of the more dangerous animals isn't. This is mostly
due to your horse's sense of danger and as the 'loyalty
meter' decreases so too does the horse's trust of you.
Feeding and watering the horse until it's reasonably
happy again and confidence has been restored can rectify
this. Failing this you can even sing or groom the horse
although this is never as effective as food and water
so make sure you pick up everything that's available.
The password system is an incredible oversight. Developers
really need to be aware that unless the password is
six digits or less they should consider a battery backup
of some description especially when the title is aimed
at children. This is another one of those 14 digit types
and is a mix of upper and lower case letters and even
numbers. I can't begin to explain how difficult this
is to record and input so players can expect to encounter
the 'invalid code' message on more than a few occasions
before they just decide to restart the whole game again.
Controls
Remarkably, for a title aimed at children, the control
system is actually quite complicated and I pressed the
wrong buttons on many occasions during my first few
sessions with this game. This is partly due to the fact
that it's a Sim, always been renowned for their difficult
interfaces, but considering the projected demographic
a comprehensive tutorial is badly needed (see Pinky
and the Brain). You do get a short explanation in the
first area but this simply isn't enough and many gamers
will become frustrated initially. Spending some time
with this title with its steep learning curve is essential.
Graphics
Considering this has been taken from a big screen
animated movie neither the graphics nor the animation
is anything like what we know the GBA is capable of.
Initially the story is constructed by utilising stills
from the movie, which look wonderful, but once you're
actually in the game everything changes and the best
this title seems to offer are visuals that the GBC was
easily capable of. The animation is also very disappointing
and the characters feel wooden and unconvincing. It's
a shame the visuals weren't directly taken from the
movie or a console version as this has worked very well
for similar titles such as Harry Potter or Broken Sword.
Sound & Music
The audio in this title ranks amongst some of the
most irritating I've ever heard and the only thing that
saves the game is the fact that you can turn it off.
The music seems like it's on a constant five-second
loop only to change to another equally annoying piece
when your horse is in some type of danger. I'd love
to report that the sound effects were better but they're
not. Do yourself a favour and play this with the audio
options turned right down.
Final Comments
Spirit ends up being an odd mix of gaming styles
but its real flaw is the bitty and interrupted gameplay
that children simply won't want to deal with or enjoy.
There's also the problem of the lengthy and overly complicated
password system which really is unforgivable and has
previously ruined even quality titles. It seems that
the whole game is at odds with itself while on the one
hand it has identified its market; on the other it appears
to be ignoring it. All this results in a title that's
simply not reflective of the animated movie it's based
on so you should only really consider buying this if
you're a massive fan of the movie and or you're really,
really into horses.
|
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