At nearly 4 years old, my eldest daughter is getting interested in games, specifically the Wii with it’s remote waving ability. It seems she’s not the only one, as there are more and more games on Nintendo’s console aimed at younger children, especially girls.
One game she kept picking up while in the game shop was Disney Princess Enchanted Journey and after a few attempts to dissuade her from getting it at full price, I finally picked it up for £15 in Gamestation. It wasn’t long before she was sat transfixed as the intro CGI kicked in and she was whisked away to a magical castle.
The storyline is pretty straight-forward; four Disney princesses (Ariel, Snow White, Jasmine and Cinderella) have had something taken by an evil witch from each of their kingdoms (sound, time, color and trust) and it’s up to you to save the kingdoms and bring these things back.
What this amounts to is using the Wii Remote as a wand to cast a spell on the little imps running around and to play the various mini-games which pop up as you run through the story. The controls are fairly easy, though smaller children may have issues with using the Nunchuk to walk around the worlds. After a short while my daughter just about managed to get around, but anyone 5 and over should have no problems. Waving the wand is just a matter of waving the remote left and right or raising it and bringing it down fast to create a ripple of magic.
The mini games range from pointing the remote and pressing A at certain objects to catching things as they fall (using the Nunchuk to move left and right). All the minigames are fairly easy to do which means that it will be no time at all before you’ve completed each level, but there’s enough to keep small hands busy for a while and you can go back to each kingdom at any time and collect jewels, as well as playing the mini-games again.
Once you’ve completed the game, or if you collect enough jewels, you can unlock new outfits to wear. In fact, one nice touch is that you can go back to the mirror in the main room and change your outfit at any time.
Graphics-wise, the game is very colourful but won't win any prizes. The cut scenes suffer from some lazy mouth to voice co-ordination and the game itself is functional, looking more like a later Gamecube title than something on the Wii. That said, the graphics and the environment do their job well enough.
Disney Princess is a fairly simplistic game that won’t take an average 5 year-old that long to complete, but it should hold their interest by allowing them to re-visit the worlds and just taking part in a Princess adventure may be enough to keep them coming back. For 3-7 year old girls it’s the perfect game.
8/10 (if you’re under 7!) |
