Assignment 1

Despereaux Swings
Adventure - Movie
http://www.gamegecko.com/despereaux_swings.php

I'll admit. At first, I was smitten by the irresistibly cute little mouse, Despereaux, when he swung in like a champion on the opening screen. But soon thereafter, the looped clip from the cinematic score became a little monotonous and it dawned on me that this was a game intended for children. At least the design of the opening and instruction screens was pleasing to the eye.


Game play is simple enough. The object is to navigate Despereaux through a dungeon looking environment by propelling him upward with a swinging pendulum to different floating platforms and ultimately his escape. Click on the mouse, pull back the arrow that appears. The farther back the arrow goes, the farther or higher he will fling himself. Along the way you collect points in the form of glowing keys, lamps and other such items.


Although simple to grasp, it still managed me to take a moment to get a firm handle on the awkward controls. In a way, it's somewhat primitive, as you can't run or jump, but hey, this is made for a much younger audience. (The fact that I couldn't win the thing with little effort unfortunately speaks of my gaming abilities.) However, in the very first level, I found out that it's possable to slip between the platforms and plummet a great ways back to the ground -- which doesn't kill you (there's no hp) but does manage to trap you there and prevent further progress until you reload the browser and start again. Annoying!



In the end it was marginally fun, be it a little dull. Ok, really dull.