Rockett's Tricky Decision
Reviewed by Anise Hollingshead
Published by Purple Moon

Age Group: Age 8 and Up Type: Puzzles/Memory Price:

PC version requires:
486 66MHZ, 8MB RAM, (16MB Win 95) 10MB HD

Mac version requires:
68040 33MHZ, 8MB RAM, 10MB HD, 7.01, 2x CD-ROM

Description:

Have you ever wished you were able to secretly peek into other people's lives and thoughts? Or have you ever wished you could turn back the clock and change a decision you made? Well, in Purple Moon's new game Rockett's Tricky Decision, you are given this power!

Okay, parents, cast your minds back into the hazy days of Middle School. Remember how we agonized over what the other kids were thinking, what we looked like, what group we belonged to, our relationships, if we were cool or not? What we would have given in those days to be able to peek into other's thoughts and also to take back choices we had made. Girls especially in this age group spend much time and energy focusing on their relationships to their friends, enemies, and pretty much everybody who has contact with them, and would love to know what everybody REALLY thought of them!

In Rockett's first game, Rockett's New School, she was the new kid on the block and was busy trying to fit in. Now she's back, still unsure of her place at the Whistling Pines and faced with a dilemma: she's been invited to 2 Halloween parties and has to decide which one to go to. The decisions you make as Rockett will ultimately decide the outcome of where to go. The game progresses as a movie with you in the drivers seat. Everytime a decision- making opportunity comes up, you have 3 responses from Rockett to choose from, happy, angry, or ambivalent. The choices are shown as balloons with Rockett's face and if you pass your cursor over each ballon, you will hear Rocket's response in that particular mood. If you don't like the outcome, you can backpedal and choose again! At any time during the story you may wander the secret hallway and peek into the others' lockers, the teacher's lounge, and the newspaper room, the Whistler. There are 20 lockers to look into, and if you keep checking back, things will have changed from the last time you there.

Features:

• Ability to choose Rockett's path
• Access to schoolmates' lockers
• Replay option of certain segments

Technical Aspects:

Installation and running posed no problems! The graphics are all large, cartoon-like, and the animations ran smoothly.

Report and Conclusions:

The day this game came in the mail, my daughter grabbed it after school and ran to the computer to install it. She was glued to the computer until time for gymnastics. The next night, she again hit the computer and then informed me that she did not want to go to gymnastics tonight! Suffice it to say that this would have formerly been unthinkable, as my daughter lives, eats and breaths gymnastics and gets upset when I don't feel like taking her. She is 11 years old and is at the optimum age for this game, as she and her friends spend hours talking about each other, their friends, and what everybody said; you get the picture! Her favorite part of this game is the secret hallway where you can visit the lockers and get the inside scoop on everybody.

However, this game is not for every girl. This game is designed for girls who focus on other's feelings and thoughts, and if your daughter couldn't care less about these things, then this game will be a drag. Also, there isn't much to do but watch and wait, there is no roaming around (except in the hallway) on your own, picking up things, or manipulation of objects here, it's just passive gameplay for the most part. The characters are overly drawn and exaggerated, but this is entertainment, not real life. You can either play the game determined that nothing and nobody will get in your way, or be the ever optimistic and Pollyanna type girl, or just be a doormat, and the accompanying remarks of Rockett to each mood are quite funny! I would have liked this game better if there were more things to do like a few side games you could play independently or more adventure aspects, but overall this is a game that is sure to please most girls ages 9-11.

One last thought: I got very tired of hearing "Oh, God!" from some of the characters. My kids are not allowed to use that expression, and it is extremely irritating to hear it in a kid's game. Too bad Purple Moon evidently thought it was appropriate language use.

If you have any problems when using Kids Domain then please contact Cindy, who will be happy to help where possible.

[A-Z Index - Beginners - Ages 2-5 - Ages 4-8 - Ages 8 up - Grownups]

[Subject Indexes - Kids Home - Online Games - Grownups Place]

Copyright ⌐ Kids Domain, 1998.