Camp Lazlo is a Cartoon Network series, with artwork in the same style as Ren and Stimpy. The camp’s name is actually Camp Kidney, but the series is named after the lead character. It’s a “perma-camp,” where the kids seem to live there all year long. (One episode involved the kids at camp over Hallowe’en.)In the game, you play Lazlo and his two best buds, Raj and Clam. Each character has a different set of mini-games. Complete them all, and you’ve earned the right to represent Camp Kidney in the Leaky Lake Games.
One of Lazlo’s games is Mulberry Hunt. He has to find the mulberry bush and pick its three fruit, one at a time. The challenge is that the bush keeps moving, and birds try to steal the mulberries you’ve already collected.
Tube Gauntlet is one of Raj’s games. Raj is an elephant (albeit a small, scout-sized one). He’s got to maneuver his inner tube downstream, avoiding logs, rocks, other tubes, alligators and whirlpools.
Clam is a clam (I guess?). In Go Fishing, Clam must cast his fishing line over a fish, then maintain the right tension to reel it in without breaking the line.
Each character has about five mini-games. Talking to other regular characters in the series triggers the various games. Each mini-game is timed — if you run out of time, you have to start it over. Complete it successfully and you earn a merit badge.
Once you’ve completed all the mini-games and won all your merit badges for all three characters, Lazlo, Raj and Clam are chosen to represent the Bean Scouts in a game day against Camp Kidney’s arch-rival Squirrel Scouts. Complete these events and you’ve won the game.
The game does a good job reflecting the series, in both graphics and in how the characters interact. Its target audience is eight to twelve years old, and the gameplay seems to be appropriate for that age.
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.
