Brave: The Video Game
© 2012 Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media
Following a tried-and-true formula, this one-or two-player (on the console version) action adventure lets you play as Merida and other characters from the Pixar movie Brave. Our testers were less than excited about "yet another movie game." Still the format is fun. We played the first two levels of the Wii version and found the format to be predictable. The best part -- you can play alone or with another player in co-op (drop in/drop out) mode. Set in mythical Scotland, there are plenty of monsters to kill. Fortunately you can choose from four challenge levels in the preferences (we picked the medium level and found it to be doable). We liked the strong female lead character, but wondered why you have to smash everything in sight (including flowers) in order to earn coins. The coins buy upgrades, such as weapons. Bottlenecks are few, but they still exist (we found jumping up a cliff to be challenging, and the hint system is strange). Weapons include a sword or bow and arrow, and there are short mini-games and puzzles to solve on the Kinect, Wii and PlayStation 3 Move versions. The DS game offers: single player gameplay with Merida; quests and adventures; and mini games and puzzles. Prices are $50 for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, and $30 for Nintendo DS and PC/Mac. The bottom line? This is a fun game, but it follows a very typical format used by hundreds of others. It is light on the learning and problem solving, heavy on the fighting, moving and unlocking. The two player option would be good for a parent/child team; definitely good for a rainy weekend. Developed by Behaviour Interactive for Disney.
$50, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, Windows, Mac OSX, Xbox Kinect, PlayStation Move
Teaches: logic, money
CTR Rating: 82%