Rockett's New School
Reviewed by Cynthia A. Sorrels
Published by Purple Moon

Age Group: Age 8 and Up Type: More Fun Price: $ 29.99 US

PC version requires:
486-66 8 MB RAM, 10 M 2x CD-ROM, Windows 95, also on Windows 3.1, 640x480x256

Mac version requires:
Version is available.

Description:

Rockett's New School is nothing like the Secret Paths in the Forest, except that some of the girls are in both titles. Don't look for puzzles or arcade challenges here - this is basically an interactive storybook in which girls can choose reactions to situations. Their reaction is what determines the next scene. In other words, how Rockett's first day in a new school is going depends on the decisions made by the player.

Features:

• Social play
• 23 characters
• Over 400 notes, letters, journal entries to explore.
• 16 decision points, each with 3 choices.
• Comes with posable Rockett Adventure Friend posable doll and Rockett's World Adventure Cards.
• TV option offers the chance to see a movie of Rockett's day.

Technical Aspects:

Rockett's New School installed quickly and ran with no problems. The cartoon style graphics are nicely done and "cool." The audio is enhanced, meaning there's quite a bit of background noise in the scenes.

Report and Conclusions:

We played this title through twice from beginning to end. I played it myself, and the next day had my oldest daughter play it. She's 13 years old, not far from the targeted age group of 8 to 12. This program is structured so that you watch a video sequence, decide and then watch more video sequence. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to work through, and offers the option of watching a "show" of the videos - it runs all the sequences together, without stopping for decisions.

My daughter's comments: "It didn't seem much like a game because you watch, then point and click. Checking out the backpack was fun, and so were the lockers. But I think it could get kinda boring if you played it again. Not a keeper." She also stated that she liked the strong characters throughout the story, but she wasn't interested in playing anymore.

As mentioned earlier, this is more an interactive storybook than a game. The characterization is excellent, and while making different decisions does affect the outcome of the story, watching video sequences that last several minutes before being able to click, well, it just isn't fun.

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