Rockett's Adventure Maker

Reviewed by Ashley Collins
Published by Purple Moon

Age Group: Age 4 to 8, Age 8 and Up
Type: More Fun
Price: $30

PC version requires:
Windows 95 or 98, 486/66 or faster CPU, 16MB of RAM, 15MB available hard disk space, SVGA graphics, 2X or faster CD-ROM, 16-bit Windows compatible sound card

Mac version requires:
PowerPC, System 7.1 or higher, 16 MB RAM (12MB available), 15MB available hard disk space, 256-color monitor, 2X or faster CD-ROM, speakers, printer (optional).

Description:

Make your own adventures using characters and settings from other Rockett games-- you can also make and name your own characters! Decide what they should look like (1 male and 4 female body shapes), then choose an outfit and decorate it (lots of solid and patterned designs), a hairstyle and color, and a face and skin tone. After placing a person in the adventure, you can even change their attitude/body position. Then print your adventure, and use the magnets to act it out. You can even write stories about your people in the yearbook, which includes backgrounds on all the Whistling Pines characters.

Features:

  • Sign-in of players to keep separate user accounts
  • Rockett & other characters from Whistling Pines
  • Tons of backgrounds, props, and speech bubbles to choose from
  • Comes with Rockett magnet and props, magnetic stage with stand, reusable speech bubble magnets and erasable marker
  • Also comes with 5 sheets of cardboard and 2 sheets of self-adhesive magnets
  • One of the print options will save a JPEG image of your adventure for you to send to your friends

Technical Aspects:

We experienced no technical problems installing or running this software. When you want to print your adventure, you can choose whether to print the strip as is, or for magnets. If you choose the "magnets", it prints each piece (background, person, prop, speech bubble) separately. Next you cut out and glue them to the cardboard, which you also cut out. Then attach the self-adhesive magnets to the back of the cardboard cutouts. You can also order refill kits if you need extra magnets and cardboard, or a magnet kit which has the Rockett magnet & props, magnetic stage, and reusable speech bubble magnets, and erasable marker.

Report and Conclusions:

The packaging is a little misleading. If anything, this program is actually a comic book creator, rather than an adventure maker. You decide whether you want it to be one big square, or multiple squares (many styles to choose from). Then you select your background, add people, props and speech bubbles. It's a very good idea, but you can only make one strip per adventure. It can have up to nine squares, but if you want to add more story than that, you have to start a new adventure. The best part of this game is getting to make your own characters, and the three girls who played this game all enjoyed this part very well. In theory, I think this type of game could be a good idea, but needs more content besides making magnets, which are an awful lot of work, plus they don't really appeal to the ages of the target audience (of the 3 girls who played, only the 6 year old enjoyed this part, and it was too difficult for her!) I just don't see very much replay value to this title.




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