You may notice that, in the hallowed pages of most games sites, we journos don’t often get a chance to review kid’s games before they are released. This isn’t due to a reticence on our part, as we are keen to tell you if anything’s crap. It’s more that the publishers think that the game won’t get a fair hearing, because, we bring grown-ups, won’t understand what appeals to kids.
Well, they are wrong. We understand what they like, as we’re big kids too, we just think that most games made for children are cheaply and badly made. A kid’s game needs a highly variable level of difficulty, bright distinct colors, and tremendous reply value (it helps if it’s non violent and non sexual as well). It doesn’t have to below-res, and it doesn’t have to crippled by cross platform development but it doesn’t have to be stupid and cheap either.
Crash Bandicoot is a kid’s game, but it’s not cheap. It’s bright, it has simple stupid plot and daft character design (Crash now has tattoos, because tattoos are Cool) plus the usual agglomeration of kid’s game elements, collectables, unlockables, mini games, that encourage replay. You control Crash through a platform landscape where he beats up a variety of increasingly large baddies to save his island. Yawn.
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