Alex Rider is a very popular series of books for both boys and girls alike starting around 5th to 6th grade. The combination of mystery and adventure appeals to both genders, and because the game allows you to play the plot similar to the Stormbreaker book, the game should also appeal to both. It plays like your typical adventure game with a storyline to follow, bad guys to beat up, items to collect, and cut scenes of text to read. My son has found the game to be fun, occasionally challenging, and a good way to experience for himself what it would be like to be Alex Rider.First the requisite 'bad' of the game. You can only save one version of the game, so you can't have multiple people playing. This is a complaint that I know many of our reviewers have about games for the DS or GBA, and I'm finding that I can understand why. I have three children, not just one, and sometimes all three of them like to be playing the same game. They obviously can't do that with just one save, and the save files are on the game disc itself, not on the DS. So with games like Alex Rider Stormbreaker we end up with fights over who's “save file” is the most important. My other complaint about the game is that the graphics are often very tiny. While it adds to a feeling of where you are to set the scene by showing you much of the office, or junk car lot, or whatever Alex's location currently is, because you're seeing so much of the area, it is sometimes hard to place Alex on just the right area of the screen to get him to move where he needs to go. This could be a problem with collision detection in the game, but I'm more inclined to say that it is because there is too much space around Alex.
And now for the good, which thankfully is much more than the bad. The game is more than just fighting off the bad guys, though there is quite a bit of that. In different portions of the game you have to use timing and stealth to follow Mr. Crawford through the subway station, hiding behind objects so that when he turns around he doesn't see you. This is one of the more challenging parts of the game, actually. You can't fall too far behind him, either, or you lose the game. In another portion of the game, Alex is sliding down a zip line and has to avoid tree branches sticking out by swinging to the left or right. If you manage to succeed at that, you then have to jump off at just the right time to try to hit the center mark and make your landing. My favorite of all these “mini-games” is Snooker, a pool game with the added strategy of having to alternate between hitting red balls and those of other colors. Not easy, but both my son and I like this game best. There are a total of 8 of these “mini-games” that you play as the storyline advances. And what is great is that you can go in and play the mini-games without having to play the adventure.
So how does the adventure part stack up? Well, between the mini-games, it is repetitive, but that's rather expected in a DS game. After all, there's only so much room to store information on one of those tiny DS cartridges. Alex has a basic punch and kick to fight against the bad guys he encounters, and you can build up combo points by hitting successfully multiple times in a row, thus increasing your score. In between levels there's a short cut scene from a movie, though we hadn't realized that “Stormbreaker” had been turned in to a movie before playing the video game. These scenes add a bit to the game, but not much really. The dialogue which follows them is often so brief that it by the end of the story you feel as though you've read a condensed version of the “Cliff Notes” of the story. If you really want to know the story of “Alex Rider, Stormbreaker”, you have to read the book, or possibly watch the movie.
The question remains, of course, do we recommend the game. The short answer is “yes”. Any Alex Rider fan we've shown the game to, and it has been many, has enjoyed the game. Even younger teens have liked this handheld version of Alex Rider's story, finding parts of it challenging enough that they didn't pass the level on the first try. Though we played the Nintendo DS version, my guess is that the GBA version of the game doesn't play out that much differently in comparison. There isn't much that the game requires you to use the stylus for, and those few things could easily be done with a combination of buttons instead. Most of the action takes place in the upper screen on the DS, with you using the buttons and control pad to move around the game. Looking at screenshots of the two games, the GBA version is more “pixelated” than the DS version, but I think that is due to the limitations of the system, not the game itself. That said, though, if you own a DS, our suggestion is to get the DS version. I don't believe it should cost you much more, and the improved graphics and games which use the DS technology are well worth it. The game would make a great package with the latest novel, Snakehead which was released this month, or even one of the compilations of novels to introduce someone to the series. I know my son and his friends have enjoyed playing the game, talking about how they've gotten through levels, and just chatting about how cool Alex is.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
