Description:
Discover Atlantis for yourself! The lost city may be sunk deep beneath the ocean, but quick-witted explorers can unlock its secrets--and rescue Princess Kida--in the process. With Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire--The Lost Games, this vanished realm is within your grasp.The Lost Games offers preschool gamers a choice of five activities, all thematically tied, naturally, to Disney's newest animated feature film. The simplest of these is Atlantis Captured, which allows players to view and print images from the movie. A trio of transport-related games--Submergency Emergency, Unroadblock That! and Air Escapade--focus on simple arcade challenges in the sea, land, and air. Finally, Machine Arena allows you to construct customized attack vehicles and then pit them in a one-on-one smashup derby against either the computer or another player. The games in this package are typical of Disney arcade-style games for young players, and share many of the same drawbacks. The ships in all but one of the vehicle-based activities are tiny and difficult to operate, a ready source of frustration for newer players. Children old and sophisticated enough to master their navigation, on the other hand, will find themselves driving through obstacle courses that are fundamentally repetitive and offer few surprises. Machine Arena is a particular disappointment. There are few customization options for the vehicles players are building. And when crunch time comes, the game shrinks your creation down to a minuscule size in the combat arena and then limits you to an overhead view of the carnage. After personalizing your own fighting machine, you can barely see it in action! That is not to say that The Lost Games is a lost cause. It features clean graphic design and appealing characters. The arcade games offer players a healthy number of levels that genuinely increase in difficulty. For users who have missed out on seeing similar games elsewhere, the activities may be enjoyable and fresh. What's more--and perhaps most important for Disney fans--children intrigued by the movie will enjoy interacting with Audrey, Vinnie, Mrs. Packard, and Milo as they probe the depths of the lost oceanic empire. --Alyx Dellamonica
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