IF Comp 2011: Six

Well, yesterday was kind of a bucket of fail, for me personally. What does the random game order generator pick for me today?

… Oh. Well, this is quite nice, isn’t it?  It starts up with some cute art of a girl in a fairy costume, and instructs  me that it will utilize music and color. It’s got a little “Feelie” map, which you can view inside the game as well as outside.  It’s so far from the implementation of Vestiges, where almost nothing even worked, that the contrast is startling.

Spoiler tags for the rest:

I really liked it, overall. It’s not really a deep premise, just the idea that you have to play hide and seek with your friends, and then that’s the end of your birthday party.  Each friend is in a costume, and each friend has a different trick you have to use to tag them.  If you manage to succeed, you get to play the game as a different girl, the twin of the original girl (who is in a witch costume).  Throughout the game, there’s little musical interludes and sound effects to keep it entertaining.

I think it might at least partially be designed for kids as well as about them, so I’m a little embarrassed to say it took me a while to figure out how to get Jack, the kid dressed as Spider-Man.  It only clicked for me when I realized you could pick up the leaves while he was still in the room they’re in, which, maybe is pretty sad if the game is designed for a six-year-old.  Because of this, I didn’t get all the way through the second sister’s game, but what I saw of it was cute and answered my questions about the stuff in the first game that seemed to be strange but unexplained.

Another thing amusing about this one for me personally was the Australia-isms.  You put margarine on white bread, then sprinkles, and that’s the treat you give kids?  Huh.  I had to locate an Australian friend to confirm this wackiness.  Then he showed me some amazing Australian food commercials.

This game comes highly recommended if you like whimsy and are interested in learning the bizzare ins and outs of Australian children’s birthday parties.

By the way, if any Australians read this review so far, “Hide and Seek Tip” is the only way I ever played Hide and Seek as a kid.  I didn’t even realize there was some variant where you didn’t have to tag the other kids after finding them.  Make of that what you will.


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