I obviously don’t fit the target audience, but can Kid Adventures Sky Captain still entertain?
[starreview]
Developer: Torus Games
Publisher: D3 Publisher
Release Date: June 15th, 2010
ESRB Rating: E
When I first got the pile of review games I was supposed to work on for the next couple of weeks, I got a mental image of which ones I was going to start and finish with based on the boxart for the games, and since have been following that order (yes, how shallow of me). However, Kid Adventures: Sky Captain threw me off completely with one quick read of the front and back of the box. What surprised me about this game the most was how much it teased you, and this made it fun in a sense. I put in the game and sat down on my bed, to realize that the game was a colorful, free-roam do-missions type game, that lets players choose between a boy or girl as their character. They would then go onto different worlds and complete various missions for people such as bringing supplies, feeding animals, and putting out fires. The character is setting out to be the next Sky Captain, and has a rival, no real story here. Nothing big, moving on.
The gameplay is fairly simple, asking players to hold the Wiimote NES-style and using the 2 and 1 buttons to speed up/slow down, the D-pad to change camera angles, and the A and B buttons to shoot projectiles/do tricks. To move the plane, you tilt the Wiimote, and this works rather well, and throughout my entire gameplay I had no problems with the controls not recognizing my movements. The gameplay is ridiculously repetitive, but the fact that you move on to new lands and have a way of keeping track of your missions via menu is what kept me going, and it helped me get through the game without being bored the whole time. What adds to it is the fact that players are given the opportunity to free-roam around the map, picking up rings that give you XP to level up and gain new planes to use in-game.
The game is generally easy and a walk in the park, until you get to one of the 5 races against your rival. He pops in every once in a while to cause havoc, and you have to race him to get him to stop what he is doing. You can always go back and re-do missions for a higher score, which is the incentive to replay the game.
Might I say, damn at the difficulty. For anyone who just picked up the controls the first time, they’d probably be shocked at how hard some of the later races are. To be accurate, the game requires you to race him while going through rings, and if you miss a ring you fall behind drastically, which makes you lose then and there. This requires players to restart multiple times, and is frustrating (especially for the target audience). However, right after you finish the race, the game goes back to it’s simple difficulty. What gives?
- A screenshot from Kid Adventures Sky Captain of the starting area, Gloster Island.
The game has 40 missions, which are spread across 3 lands. It shouldn’t take you that long to finish the game, as I managed to finish it in one sitting, which took 5 hours. Even then, I went back and got some higher scores than I wanted. The graphics are good for a children’s game, and have the enticing, simple appeal of games such as Kirby Air Ride. Also, one of the worlds in the game takes much influence from Super Mario Galaxy, and does so by having almost the same exact design of the areas found throughout the game. As for the music, it does it’s job of creating a cheery, happy mood to go along with the gameplay, but isn’t anything spectacular, bearing influences from DX synthesizers and sounds of the like.
Throughout the experience, Kid Adventures: Sky Captain is what it is supposed to be: a children’s game at heart. However, it manages to appeal to all ages, in a way that is fun and interactive. Note that there was a multiplayer mode that I wasn’t able to check out due to me having nobody to play games with, but if you think this game is worth it, then get it. However, there’s not much to do after the storyline ends.
The review copy used for this review was furnished by D3Publisher.
