One of the shows my family likes best on the weekend is That's So Raven. This series has been on the air for more years than I can count, with repeats of shows where Raven is in middle school on during the week right up to her senior year in high school for the current season, at least I think that's where the current season is. So when we had an opportunity to review That's So Raven: Psychic on the Scene my hope was that this would be a game that all three of my kids would enjoy. I don't think it is any fault of the game itself that my kid's haven't grabbed on to this one, but more that there are so many games similar to it from the Disney Channel TV shows that they feel like “been there, done that” when they put this particular game in. And unfortunately I can't say that I blame them.The game is your typical adventure game for the DS. As Raven you're trying to save the local theater from being torn down. There's some mystery as to who would want the theater to close, and it is up to you to figure it out. When you get to the theater, you have to figure out how to get backstage first. You do this by completing tasks for people around the theater and disguising yourself as an employee. Once backstage, you find more clues to what happened in the theater, and find yourself in need of changing in to a different disguise. Through a few mini games, clue searching, and conversations done correctly, the game advances. The game is very linear and you really can't mess it up. Even if you make the wrong conversation choice, you only are bounced back to the moment before the conversation starts and you know you just pick the other option the next time you talk to the person. There are no two ways around the steps in the story, and this has caused us to be stuck a number of times. In fact, we haven't even come close to solving the mystery at this point because we can't figure out how to get passed the “Frantic Footsteps” portion of the game.
Before I go on to explain that, and the other mini games, let me say that I think they did a good job of incorporating the various features of the DS into gameplay. While much of the action happens in the top screen, the bottom screen is your inventory, map, and where you interact with the environment. You can use the stylus on the touch pad to move Raven around and see where places to interact are on the mini-map, though sometimes you'll have to use the arrow pad in order to move her around more closely. When Raven has a vision, you blow on the DS microphone to clear away the fog so you can see her vision. Usually this just lets you see the directions for the mini-games, but sometimes it gives you hints on what to do next too. It really is a clever way of making use of the DS technology in a very simple way, though.
So why are we hesitant to recommend That's so Raven? Well, because we ended up stuck on just the third mini-game we encountered. My daughter (who is 8) has declared the game “too boring or too hard”, which translates to there is no real challenge to it. The game is either too easy or too hard, for the most part. The first mini-game we had to get past is called “Feed the Mob”. There are four tables set up in the Chill Grill, which apparently can only serve three types of food: shakes, fries and burgers. You have to prepare (by selecting the right food and pushing the red button) the food and deliver (by dragging it to the tray from the conveyor belt) it to the right person, then you pick up the tray when the people are done eating. The good part about this game is that you can turn on the microphone and say the food you want to make rather than having to tap it, but you still have to tap the red button on and off to actually make the food. It would have been cool, and add to the challenge, if saying the food would actually create it. You could move faster if you had to say the food and just use the touchpad to deliver it. It still gets a bit hectic around the fourth level of this game when people start asking for multiple things per order, so that becomes fun. But that doesn't happen in the story of the game itself, only when you play the mini-games separately.
The next mini-game is called Super Seamstress. Imagine connect the dots for the DS and you know how to play this game. You earn bonus points for speed, but in general there isn't much challenge to this game. The next one, however, Frantic Footsteps, has us stuck from advancing through the game. We've had 5 people try to figure out exactly how to play this game, people with a variety of gaming experience, and not one of us can get past the challenge. We can't even figure out exactly what we're doing wrong, so it is rather frustrating. The directions say to tap the foot in time to the music, which we thought we were doing. However, we always seem to miss, and three misses means you've failed to advance. If we could figure out WHY we were missing, when we were supposed to tap, I'm sure it would be much easier. We never got to the other mini-games in the storyline mode itself because, well, we were stuck at the Frantic Footsteps as I mentioned before.
Thankfully the game has some replayability to it by allowing you to play the mini-games separately from the story mode. In Crazy Cook you combine simple ingredients to make some wild recipes, using the stylus to do everything from measure out the proper ingredients to chopping meat. Squish A Bug is just what it sounds like it is. The top screen tells you which bug, or bugs as the difficulty increases, to squish by tapping with your stylus. This particular game has brought the most giggles while playing it because, well, it is fun to squish bugs even if they are just virtual bugs. Miss Matchmaker is a test of your visual acuity, and it gets challenging (in a good way this time) very quickly. In the top screen will be anywhere from one to three (at least as far as we've played it is up to three) objects that you need to find the match for on the bottom screen. On the bottom screen objects similar to it will be moving around and you have to tap them. And lest you think this is easy, let me assure you that when trying to find the small red lipstick with the pink heart in and amongst all the other red lipsticks that are dashing across the screen is not easy at all! It's still been fun, though.
So why can't we really highly recommend That's So Raven: Psychic on the Scene like I wish we could? Well, in part because we're stuck so early on in the storyline. While this could be our own fault, it is more likely that the directions for the Footsteps mini-game are missing something in the “how to” description. And the storyline for the game is just too linear to be all that interesting. You really don't have to figure out the mystery because you're told exactly what to do and how to do it without much option. It's obvious that much of the programming for this game went in to the mini-games, which is great for replayability if you like them. But the story would have benefited greatly from being more open ended, or at least with some true options on how you get through it. This is more of a “Follow my adventure” than a “Choose your own adventure” game. If you have a youngster who is a huge Raven fan, they might like the game. But for my daughter, there have been other BVG games put out recently which she enjoys much more.
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.
