NDS ROM: 3349 - Emma in the Mountains - USA

matty123123 2009-02-01

It looks like a kids game so i wont be downloading it

Magix_Soni 2009-02-02

Here is my review of the game:

The Emma titles have more in common with a pop-up book you'd find on

the shelves of your local bookstore than a traditional videogame. Young

children will have a blast reading along and interacting with their DS

in a variety of novel ways, enamored in the same manner they are when

being read a good bedtime story. The problem is that we aren't

reviewing the Emma children's novels, we're reviewing the Emma games,

and the Emma games just don't offer enough content to warrant the price

of admission.



Just like Emma's literary predecessors like Clifford the Big Red

Dog and Amelia Bedelia, this pair of Emma titles offers two unique

tales following the exploits of the young redhead as she stumbles upon

all sorts of adventures along with her trusty talking dog Pickles. Emma

in the Mountains, for instance, finds our heroine visiting her

grandfather in the mountains as he prepares for the annual toboggan

race. Emma discovers that the groundhogs around the cabin are missing,

even though their hibernating days have long since passed. With Pickles

and her friend Andy by her side, Emma must search the mountain for

clues as to the missing groundhog's whereabouts before the toboggan

race can get underway.



Emma at the Farm, on the other hand, tasks Pickles and Emma with

finding a group of missing baby chicks while helping her Uncle Jules

perform the daily chores around the farmyard. Over the course of the

adventure, Emma meets a whole variety of barnyard animals including

ducks, cows, pigs, chickens and even a donkey. Sure, the narratives are

a bit juvenile for the average gamer, but they provide more than enough

excitement for younger kids who love children's stories.



The pop-up book metaphor works for more than just the stories,

however, extending all the way to how the game ultimately plays out.

Players will read through a series of dialogue and narration scenes

before interacting with the game world in the form of a mini-game.

These sections are remarkably analogous to a pop-up book's pull-tabs.

Flip a page, read the text, pull the tab, repeat.

The games guide players in an extremely linear fashion that feels very

restrictive, but in this context meshes well with the interactive

children's book vibe that both titles seem to strive for. Gamers

looking for real excitement need not apply, but kids who just want to

get a little bit more involved with the stories they're reading will

really get a kick out of the way Emma in the Mountains and Emma at the

Farm are laid out.



The mini-games themselves are pretty shallow, so much so that I

even hesitate to characterize some of them as mini-games at all. For

instance, there's one scene in which Emma is trying to wake up a

sleeping old man by blowing into the DS' built-in microphone. Just one

strong blow and you're done. It's hardly worthy of being described as

an actual mini-game, but the fact that you're interacting with the

story does manage to draw younger players into the world. Over the

course of Emma's adventures, players will get into a snowball fight,

navigate a dark groundhog burrow, collect chicken eggs and water a

vegetable garden, among other activities. These little challenges

really help to move the story along and make players feel a part of the

action, even if only a handful of these activities manage to remain

compelling outside of their narrative context.



One characteristic in which the Emma titles fail to match the

pop-up book comparison is in the visuals. Simply put, both Emma in the

Mountains and Emma at the Farm are ugly games. The character models are

comprised of low-resolution renders that vary wildly in quality,

jumping from dramatically compressed 2D sprites to strange cartoon

drawings from one minute to the next. Half of the fun of reading

children's books is viewing the amazing artwork, and the Emma titles

unfortunately fail to deliver in this very important department.



The good news is that you won't have to be disappointed by Emma's

visuals for long, as you'll have played through all of the content for

both titles in less than an hour. Again, the included stories are very

reminiscent of classic children's books in many ways, and that

definitely includes their short overall length. What's more, there's

not much reason to come back and play again, unless players are

interested in checking out the harder difficulty modes that unlock

after the first completion.



Emma at the Farm in particular does offer one unique feature worth

mentioning. One of the unlockable extras is a series of recipes for

players to try out with their parents. The recipes themselves are

nothing fancy – nowhere near as interactive or unique as the recently

released Personal Trainer: Cooking from Nintendo – but they do provide

a nice practical bonus for the whole family to enjoy.

Closing Comments

It really is

too bad that we can't rate Emma in the Mountains and Emma at the Farm

as the next evolution of the children's book genre. If we could, these

two titles would certainly have scored higher as they offer a great new

experience for young gamers. Sadly, the actual "game" part of these

titles fails to impress. The mini-games are only interesting in the

context of the story, the visuals are unattractive and both games can

be completed in less than 60 minutes. This whole interactive pop-up

book genre is extremely interesting and it'll be fun to see where it

goes from here on out, but until titles like Emma in the Mountains and

Emma at the Farm can offer gameplay as compelling as the stories they

set out to tell, we'll be fine sticking with the print versions.

Magix_Soni 2009-02-03

:D I will write reviews for most the games that I don't like starting from now.

K_Kun 2009-02-08

Lol, looks like massive copypasta to me.

jackxoxox 2009-02-25

":D I will write reviews for most the games that I don't like starting from now."



that was total plagarism, not 'writing'

jedrick1490 2009-03-01

Oh wait, make that number three. haha

zaheen 2009-04-10

Screen shot 4 teaches us how to play with her?? Is this rated A (for adults)