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Pass the Pigs (DS)
by Whizz11
Pass the Pigs is a really entertaining game that I like to play with friends and family. It's a bit silly but that is the fun of it . I usually play it with real little plastic pigs and bought this game a while ago as I wondered whether it would be as entertaining as the original board game version and its fun for a few minutes but after ... that I have to admit it's a bit boring. Mainly I miss playing it with other people as I think that's the most fun of this game, to watch other people physically throw the pigs and see how they land. With this game for the DS you use your stylus to roll the pigs or throw the pigs and so the computer does it for you so you never really feel like you are throwing the pigs yourself.
The aim of the game is to basically reach 100 points. I've always just played this game on the DS on my own against the computer as I have never tried to wirelessly connect to other people in the room or online or anything like that so all you have is the computer rolling the pigs against you. I don't think its stacked either way as I seem to win quite a lot and lose quite a lot so I don't think any one person or computer has the advantage.
The pigs act as the dice and it is these you throw with the stylus to reach your 100 points. You get different points for the pigs landing in different positions and you keep on rolling until you Pig Out and then it is the computers turn. The different positions are listed below but for example, if one of the pigs lands on its nose, this is called a Snouter and you earn 10 points for this. If both pigs land on their nose in one throw it is called a Double Snouter and you get 40 points.
You play this game in the one player mode in different places across the globe which basically is just the same every time but with some different graphics to indicate a different type of country. There are various things you can do to upgrade your pigs which makes it a bit different that the board game. Upgrades include iron snouts which makes your pigs a bit tougher but even so the game is still fundamentally the same.
A players go ends only when they "Pig Out." This is when the pigs land one their sides with one of them showing the black spot and the other showing the side without the black spot. The Oinker is good too and very funny. This is when after the pigs have been thrown and they are touching. IF this happens the players score goes back to zero and the game is over.
The first player to 100 wins.
The other scores are counted as follows:
* Single Pig
o The pig is lying on its side - 0 Points
o Razorback - The pig is lying on its back - 5 Points
o Trotter - The pig is standing upright - 5 Points
o Snouter - The pig is leaning on its snout - 10 Points
o Leaning Jowler - The pig is resting on its snout and ear - 15 Points
* Both Pigs
o Sider - The pigs are on their sides, either both with the spot facing upward or both with the spot facing downward - 1 Point
o Double Razorback - The pigs are both lying on their backs - 20 Points
o Double Trotter - The pigs are both standing upright - 20 Points
o Double Snouter - The pigs are both leaning on their snouts - 40 Points
o Double Leaning Jowler - The pigs are both resting between snouts and ears - 60 Points
o Mixed Combo - A combination not mentioned above is the sum of the single pigs score
o Pig Out - If both pigs are lying on their sides, one with the spot facing upwards and one with the spot facing downwards the score for that turn is reset to 0 and the turn changes to the next player
o Oinker - If both pigs are touching, then the total score is reset to 0 and the game ends
o Piggyback - If one pig lands completely resting on top of the other, then the player is out of the game.
All in all this is an ok game to pass a few minutes of your time on the DS but not something that will keep you entertained for hours or a game you want to go back to very soon after playing.
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Ratatouille (DS)
by doriee
got this for my birthday a few years ago, I had recieved a nintendo DS for christmas so afterwards all people ever bought me was DS games, this at the time was roughly £25 but you can pick it up for around £15 or less now. In the game you are the character "Remy" Remy is the main character (rat) in the film so it makes sence ... for the game to be about him too.
GamePlay.
The main objective of the game is for Remy to find food and to work his way through the levels to get to a new location. The food is simply floating or laying in different spots and you just have to go and collect it, it will be anything from cheese to vegetables, each location level is filled with things to climb up and over, electrical wires you need to miss out and steam you need to miss out other wise you lose life points, all around the game gold stars are dotted, once you collect a 100 of these gold stars it gives you another life and there are plenty of these so it is worth collecting them all as some of the levels you'll find are actually riddled with dangers you won't be able to avoid.
The controls are very simple to use for this and a child of a younger age would be able to work it out no problem, you simple use the key pad to run forward, and any directions, and then have buttons that will jump, the R button lets Remy sniff and locate a hidden item that he will have to find as well. In some parts of the game you will have to use the stylis.
There are two options when starting up the game, you can go on to play the levels, or you can go to work in the kitchen, I didnt udnerstand the kitchen bit at first, but simply you ahve to use the stylis to stur the pans and make sure they don't burn, once they're done you have to plate up lots of different meals and select the foods you want, then garnesh it, and then add the saurces, now this sounds really easy but you only have a certain amount of time to get this perfect and spot on.
Graphics.
The graphic son here are very simple yet affective, the game looks just like the film, but I found the background in the levels not having much detail at all and only had detail in the important parts. I don't mind this is so much because after all it is just a childrens game and they don't really care about graphics, the lack of detail didn't prove to be a problem throughout the game and there was no glitching so all was well.
what did I think.
Surprisingly my favorite part of the full game was working in the kitchen doing the cooking, it brings you excitment and but's pressure on you at the same time, especially when all your pans are burning at the same time and you need to save them quickly, it is very exciting and fulfilling when youf inally get 100% right, I found doing that helped with my hand coordination because you have to be really quick with one hand an the stylis. My favorite level on the full game, was the kitchen level too, where Remy, had to go in and collect all the food and all the gold stars, here there was many dangers such as people, fire, steam, spilages these we're all things that would harm Remy so you had to be careful, there was so many things to climb making it a challenge, it's more exciting when a game is challenging because it makes you feel great when you manage to complete it despite it being hard.
All through the game characters pop up on each level telling you what you have to do, I haven't seen the filmso I'm unsure if they are actual quotes or if they was made purely for the game, but they are very helpful as it might say something like "quick Remy you need to escape out the rapid waters of the sewer and remember to pick that chicken up on the way" I can't remember exacty what it said but it would be something a long those lines.
I found this a very good game to play and I spent around 6 hours over a few days playing this so that is a decent amount of time to play a game like this, I think that children would have no problem comleteing this at all and maybe just have a few hints from an adult or someone who has played this game. I also thinkt hat this has good replaying value, personally I wouldn't bother doing the kitchen option again because once you've done it, it won't be a challenge anymore but the levels I would deffinately do again and have done a few times anyway.
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Viva Pinata Pocket Paradise
by doriee
Viva Pinata: pocket paradise is a game where you have little patch of land which is over run with weeds and trash, your objective it to clear this and plant seeds to grow crops and plants in order to attract and raise Pinata, you unlock different pinata's by gaining experince points by completeing all the requirments for all your ... resident pinatas and breeding them.
Firstly, you start the game with a little patch of land, this throughout the game gets bigger and bigger as you level up and gain experience points, as well as your land being run down you start with a set of run down tools such as an old watering can and a broken shovel as you level up you get better shovels that have more options, also as you unlock more villagers you can buy better watering cans that don't run out of water like the first can. You also automatically start off with a pack of endless small grass seed, later in the game you can unlock a long grass seed packet which you will need to buy to fulfill the requirements of certain Pinata.
The first Pinata that you will unlock is a worm type pinata called a 'Whirlm' most of the Pinatas are based on real animals ranging from a worm to a hippo but they all have quirky names such as 'fudgehog' (hedgehog) and Squzzil (squirrel) You will attract the whirlm because you have new clean soil, this will make it a resident, you then find out the requirements for it to be in love, with a whirlm it needs to have 1% of your garden soil and a house in your garden, this you get given by billy the builder for free when you first start, you then mate your whirlms and Storkos will bring the egg and it will hatch, this is how you breed your pinata's.
Each Pinata has different requirements such as a sparrowmint (sparrow) will only become resident after you have breed to whirlms and to romance this it needs to eat a whirlm. Also the requirments for residents and romance can be anything from having a certain number of trees, certain plants, pinatas or even an ornament, a Horstachio (horse) needs a large amount of grass where as the Chippopotamous (hippo) needs a very large amount of water which you can dig with your shovel once you have the right upgrade.
For every pinata there is a varient certificate, this is where you feed a certain pinata a seed or flower it will change colour giving you the achievement, in the game it doesn't give aany hints at all and I had to find out through youtube, but you evolve some pinata also such as a Taffly can be evolved by sending it into a flaming torch, setting it on fire and it becomes a Reddhott, you can do this with a lot of them which the game doesn't make very clear so not sure how younger children would realize that without asking someone else, altogether there are 60 different kinds of pinata to collect. There is one pinata called the Jeli which will only ever appear in the game once and it will not alert you when it is close to your garden, I find this very annoying because I have not succeeded in catching one yet so I've only ever completed the game 99%.
It does become rather tedious breeding the same pinata over and over again to get the achievements for a different pinata but it is deffinately worth it when your really close to leveling up. I found that once I had all the garden upgrades and it was as large as it could go, I started to ease off a bit and pace myself and relaxing with it, I wasn't in such a hurry to get as many different pinatas at once, I took more pride in the garden and fertilizing the plants so they got more flower heads on them making the villagers very proud of my garden, once you get into this game, the time really flies by and the next time you look at the clock you'll notice you've been playing this for 3 hours straight and you never even noticed.
The game play for this is around 15-20 hours although you can of course spend as long as you want in this game even if you have all the pinata's you can still breed and send them to the children's parties, there are other side tasks to do in this game including helping Ivor the beggar get back on his feet and help turn all the sour pinata's back good again. I think this game is mainly aimed at children and adults would be put off by the 3+ on the front of the game however do give this ago it is one of the best ages I've ever played, especially if you love fun silly games.
You can buy this in any game shop and online at amazon prices range between £10 - £25
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