The storyline is a recreation of Cervantes’ classic tale of an old man who suddenly determines to lead a life of valorous deeds, assisted by his oft-bewildered friend, Sancho. Several hundred years later, this story — and the musical it inspired — still influence our culture with references like “tilting at windmills” and “to dream the impossible dream.”
And now it has inspired a game, which the designers tell me is very faithful to the book. If so, the game illustrates several valuable life principles, including perseverance and nobility of spirit.
The basic pattern of gameplay is that each plot development is reached by solving a brief puzzle. Some puzzles are directly related to the objective, but most aren’t. For example, to collect bread from a chest, you have to sort a series of everyday objects based on whether they are spheres, cones, cubes or cylinders. To catch the previously mentioned chicken, you have to determine whether each of a series of pronouns is a possessive, relative or personal pronoun.
You must also work out the proper sequence for tasks. For example, when Don Quijote is hungry, the cook sends him out to find a series of ingredients before she can prepare a meal. When he wants to reach a ceiling trap door, he must find a ladder, but when he finds the ladder he must accomplish another task or two before he can take it.
When you start a game, you choose a grade level (from 1st to 6th), and the puzzles are scaled to your grade. 1st grade puzzles tend to be picture-based. 6th grade puzzles explore more complicated aspects of grammar, math, and so forth. The puzzles are pretty forgiving, since the goal is to help the student learn. In the puzzles I saw, the game doesn’t accept a wrong answer, so you have to keep trying till you get it right. (Since they were all multiple choice, you didn’t have to guess long even if you didn’t know the answer.)
Puzzles cover all four “core” areas: math, language arts, science and social studies. They aren’t trying to teach new concepts, but to review and refresh what students have already been taught, and they seem to accomplish that goal. The graphics are simple, but effective. I’m looking forward to Don Quijote once it comes out in English.
P.S. Two of CMY’s other titles — Abby and Gordonne’s Secret and Aymun and the Mechon Pirates — are available in dual-language versions and apparently offer the same types of puzzles. (I look forward to reviewing them with the rest of the Zoo.) In fact, you can select spoken material in one language and written material in the other language. While foreign language instruction isn’t CMY’s main goal, this is still a good way to practice your Spanish.
David, the dad: Got my start in gaming with Steve Jackson Games (paper gaming), first as a tester, then as a developer and editor. Was GURPS and Car Wars system guru for awhile, then edited and developed for TSR (AD&D) and FASA (Mech Warrior, Renegade Legion), before turning to computer games. Spent six years as Origin Systems Publications Manager, then our department spun off into its own little company, Incan Monkey God Studios (IMGS). Since 1997, we’ve been a freelance content and design house, specializing in strategy guides. We created the first strategy guides for MOGs (Ultima Online, EQ: Ruins of Kunark) and now create the best MOG guides (IMHO, of course).
I like to analyze and optimize while playing games, so I much prefer games that require thought rather than action.
Evie is twelve years old and is an avid reader, especially of fantasy. Favorite authors include J.K. Rowling (of course), Brian Jacques, Cornelia Funke and Tamora Pierce. These reviews are her first published writing.
Will is nine years old and loves to investigate, especially dinosaurs and astronomy. These reviews are also his first published writing.
Jesse is seven years old and has just started reading chapter books. He likes Hank the Cowdog and cartoon books, especially Calvin & Hobbes, Baby Blues and Donald Duck.
If you're interested in the (roughly) thousand-year-old triceratops stone in our pic, check out the Dino Art. Some of the accompanying text can be a bit strident, but it's still a puzzle why Central and South American Indians knew pretty precisely what dinosaurs looked like over a thousand years ago.
