Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
© 2009 Ubisoft, Inc.
You won't go hungry (at least virtually) with this multi-platform one player maze game, which has been loosely inspired from the 1978 picture book by Judi and Ron Barrett. Our testers almost universally agreed that the game doesn't do justice to the book; although that is a matter of personal taste (pun fully intended). The format is predictable... you move Flint (the main character in the book/movie) through mazes that increase in difficulty, attacking sometimes hostile food items that fall from the sky with various food inspired weapons. This requires jumping, spearing, spraying (e.g., melting giant sugar cubes) and so on, giving the experience a hostile feel, which is quite different from the peaceful book format. The food metaphor is well done, however, and there's a good deal of temporal and spatial problem solving. The fully orchestrated sound track adds to the experience. The format works best for older children (7-up) due to some of the challenges. For example, to get over a giant square of cheese, you have to spear a blob of jello and move it, to act as a spring. It isn't exactly clear where to place the jello, however, resulting in a lot of trial and error. Besides the implied violence there is no worrisome content, with the exception of the word "forking" which is used every time you jab something with your giant fork. Some kids will obviously enjoy the similarity to another word. Once you get started, it's hard to stop this game, as long as you don't get too frustrated (two of our younger testers gave up on the DS version). Progress can be saved automatically. This is a good game to borrow; for $50, however it is pricey. Prices are $50 for the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, $30 for the PSP and DS, and $20 for the PC version.
$50, Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, Windows
Teaches: logic, spatial relations, temporal relations, some reading
CTR Rating: 82%