VeggieTales: The Mystery of Veggie Island

Rating:
Summary: Fun Just For Kids
Review: At first I thought wow! This sounds great! Being able to play a Veggie Tale computer game without eating up Internet hours would be a dream come true! But this is one of those products that teeter between a final rating of four stars or five stars and here's why.

It deserves a five star rating for the fact of it's all around quality and excellent visuals. Exhibiting detailed images that are outstanding and cute set-ups with good animation. Right from the start it will have you believing that you're about to watch another Veggie Tales video. Only here it's totally interactive and the player has to help Junior Asparagus earn his Cub-Sprout Badges and find Mr. Nezzer's lost treasure. Plus find the silly songs by clicking on certain objects throughout the game, sometimes even twice to find an extra hidden surprise of silliness. And if you read the Cub-Sprout handbook you'll find more tidbits of humor. The nifty activities and puzzles deal with memory and mostly eye to mouse (or on screen cursor) coordination. The Mysteries of Veggie Island keeps up with the Veggie reputation for positive, educational values in entertainment. Making it a wonderful game for your young 'Cub-Sprouts' to become familiar with the use of computers. And to top off the reason for a five star merit badge, is Big Idea's addition of a 'virtual egg timer' giving parents the option of directly monitoring the amount of time spent in game play.

Now for other side, what prevents a five star rating and warrants a four star instead. It's definitely a game tailored for the younger audience and is only mildly entertaining for grown-ups to some degree. The ten Silly Campfire Songs with Larry are adaptations of popular/familiar songs and might seem like something not to be missed, but don't get too excited. They're nothing like Larry's songs from the videos. Yes, they are funny but also extremely short and max out at around 30 seconds each. Plus it doesn't help when you can play the game over again, EXACTLY the same way as before. The games and puzzles have the right complexity and length for kids, but it's just all too easy for us 'big kids'.

For something new, The Mysteries of Veggie Island is an excellent choice for children, and for new beginnings from Big Idea, it shows great promise of what could come.

Rating:
Summary: Way too short
Review: I agree with everything the other reviewers have said about this game's good points, but it has one HUGE issue... this game is REALLY short. My 4-year-old son finished it in less than an hour on Christmas Day. That's it? He enjoyed it enough to play it over again several times, but I felt cheated. The pictures you see on the box are pretty much the entire game. I think there are less than 20 areas, some of which only take a couple of minutes to get through. As good as the game is, it hardly seems worth the money. I suggest going to the Big Idea website for some FREE Veggie Tales games instead. My son still spends more time on that website than on this game.

Rating:
Summary: A BEAUTIFUL Game
Review: My 5 year old recieved this game for her birthday, and it is by far one of the most visually impressive games I've ever seen. The detail is amazing and there is tons of play potential.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT Game
Review: My 5 year old son loved this games so much he couldn't stop playing it. It only took him 2 days to finish it though so it is short. But it hasn't stopped him from playing it again and again. The adventure is great as I've played it with him. You have to put some thought into finding things and where to go next. Excellent graphics as well.

Rating:
Summary: Wholesome & FUN!
Review: This game is bound to keep your kid's entertained. There are more than 10 different activities and a great mystery that wraps them all together. Of course along with the fun and the buried treasure, there is a subtle message to help others. I hope Big Idea keeps creating these wonderful games!

Rating:
Summary: Sweet, Fun, Kids had a Blast!
Review: This set of games is simply sweet, and loads of fun for the kids. Very clever theme and heart-felt lessons interspersed throughout the games. I am telling you, you can feel the love that went into developing this game!

Rating:
Summary: First Veggie Tales software EVER! Great!!
Review: This was so fun for my kids ages 6 and 11! Super high-quality graphics as you would expect from Veggie Tales and it is interactive and FUNNN! Good family-values, beautiful 3D graphics and the games are entertaining and fun. Can't wait for next release. This has many, many hours of gameplay. Great for kids 4-11. Try it!

Rating:
Summary: Good for what it is.
Review: VeggieTales: The Mystery of Veggie Island is a good but not great game. I wish the ratings alowed for 3.5 stars, but it's closer to a three than a four. The pros include (1) the characters themselves from the shows and movies, (2) a good exploration/adventure story based game where you hunt for clues to solve a mystery, and (3) kids unlock bonus Silly Songs by beating different levels.

The bad is this: once your child beats this game (1-2 hours of play - tops), there is zero replay value. Unlike Freddie Fish and other childrens' puzzle/mystery titles which vary the clue location and order of play, this game plays the exact same way each and every time. I really like the Veggie Tales concept, and my kids enjoyed the 90 minutes it took them to beat this game, but they've never touched it since they tried to play it again and realized it's the exact same game with all of the clues in the exact same place. It becomes a mystery game with no mystery.