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Great Journey
 Great Journey is a cute and colourful children's game that incorporates a positive environmental message into the storyline. This preview is based on a two-chapter demo from GMX Media that is currently being 'localised' for English speaking players. The original game comes from Rebelmind who are based in Poland and this version of the demo has Polish voices but the on-screen text is in English so it was easy to follow.
A letter from your friend, Penguin at the South Pole, asks for your help in catching a mysterious person who is dumping rubbish and messing up Penguin's clean, white home. But first you have to get out of 'Old Port' and the captain of the boat needs a map before you can leave.
Girls and boys can choose to play as Annie or Tony as they start out on this Great Journey. It's good to find a children's game that allows the player this choice, only Voodoo Kid or I.M. Meen come readily to mind in this respect. And though the play is the same for both characters there are some nice touches as the game recognises who is playing. For example, the letter from Penguin begins 'Dear Annie' or 'Dear Tony' depending on which character is selected, and the captain also addresses the character by name.
Another nice touch is the big magnifying glass which has a couple of uses. Firstly it allows the player to survey the full dimensions of the current location if moved to the edges of the screen. This scrolling overview should help young players to identify parts of the gameworld they may need to investigate. But, of course, it is also a device for searching around and it will sparkle to draw attention to objects and sometimes trigger animations. Animations in Great Journey are quite novel as they are often more than simply there to entertain. Well they might just be a bit of fun but they might also reveal hidden items. So children are encouraged to search everywhere. The hidden items might be something needed to solve a problem in the gameworld or maybe even be a hint token. These tokens can be collected and used to solve tricky problems if need be. It is up to the player if they want more help.
 The game is mostly point and click and the interface is very simple for children to use with two big footprints for walking which turn blue when there is a place to jump. Jumping is only a small part of the demo and it is quite mild with no dexterity required, only a simple mouse click. There are also a few arcade-style puzzles including steering the boat and soccer penalty shoot out where younger players may need some assistance.
Overall Great Journey is an exploration adventure game that looks like it will provide a lot of fun and encourage learning without lecturing. The gentle arcade challenges are integrated into the play but can be played separately as well, and there are, of course, many familiar problems of the find the right item and use it variety. They are quite simple and there are plenty of hints on hand including the hint tokens. The game looks to be aimed at players from about 5 to 10. From this short outing Great Journey looks like it will be a journey that kids will enjoy and, as well as being vibrant and colourful there's some catchy music to accompany the play.
Copyright © Gordon Aplin 2004.
All rights reserved.
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