Impressions: Sea Life Safari
I was all over Endless Ocean when it came out on the Nintendo Wii, so I happily downloaded the demo of Sierra's Sea Life Safari when the title became available via Xbox LIVE. I figured, if the undersea world could look so nice on the Wii, imagine how it will look on the Xbox 360, right? Wrong. Well, sure, the game looks pretty enough, but it's less Endless Ocean and more Pokemon Snap.
You're tasked with exploring underwater environments and taking pictures of the denizens of the deep for a rather demanding researcher. The demo gives you one brief trip through a coral reef on rails, and you just snap away. Controls are okay, but I felt the zooming with the trigger was kind of awkward. You also need to shoot little objects at the fish to get their attention so their reactions will make for better photos. Yeah, the fish have faces. The graphics may be more detailed and colorful than Endless Ocean, but they're also less realistic. It's like taking paparazzi pics of the cast of Finding Nemo.
I thought this might be a fun little LIVE Arcade title, but the on-rails thing really sticks in my craw. I want to be able to explore an undersea paradise and discover those fish hidden away in the little nooks and crannies. It looks pretty, but I'm not sure I'm willing to shell out ten bucks — 800 Microsoft Points — to basically play an underwater Pokemon Snap with less personality. I don't regret taking the few minutes it took to download the demo, but I don't know if I'll be unlocking the full version of Sea Life Safari anytime soon. Unless one of you all can convince me otherwise. I want to explore, dangit!
Wootini
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 20 June 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: demo, impressions, sea life safari, sierra, xbox 360, xbox live arcade
Did you mean Finding Nemo?
In fact, I did.
Brain fart!! :-)
Corrected now...