Science Papa
May. 31st, 2011 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroActivision decided that Cooking Mama was popular enough that it deserved to be copied, but not directly. It needed more competition, less instruction, and more dinosaurs. So they created Science Papa.
I’m reminded a bit of Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, which was very obviously a Final Fantasy X knockoff. Didn’t mean it was bad, but it was definitely playing follow-the-leader and trying to be slightly inventive without really understanding if it would work. This is the same way.
There isn’t that much to it. The main part of the game is doing the various experiment requests that come in via “email”, each one a series of tool minigames (similar to the various steps in each of Mama’s recipes). Until you unlock more experiments and more tools at the store, you’ll be doing the same ones over and over. The big “events” in the game are the five rounds of the “Helix Prize” competition, in which you go head-to-head with the other scientists. (Basically, you do an extended experiment while the computer is doing it at the same time, and you can throw smoke bombs and glue bombs to distract them and give yourself extra time. I passed every one on the first try.) You can clear the entire game in 4-5 hours; versus 6-8 for most Mama games (just to try everything once—if you’re going for perfect scores and completism, double that).
The tool minigames “override” each other—once you get the microwave, you never need to use the conventional oven again. But by the same token, when you buy the centrifuge (which you have to watch/time) you lose the filter (which you don’t). Oh, yes, that’s another of the gimmicks: You often have a choice of several tasks to do, and some of them just need for you to turn them on and wait. Usually, the cheaper version of the tool requires that you come back at the right time to turn it off, while the later versions turn themselves off and are automatically “perfect!” whenever you return to them.
It’s good at making the grunt work of science (measuring, mixing, waiting for things to bake or grow) seem fun, but I’m not sure how much science you can actually learn from it. The experiments range from making soap or hair dye to cloning dinosaurs, but I found myself too busy trying to get good scores on the minigames to actually pay attention to what I was doing and what the steps/ingredients were supposed to be.
But the most annoying thing about the game…
…is that Professor Science Papa has a very small word balloon…
…that they feel needs ellipses whenever there’s a continuous thought…
…even if video game convention has never used them.
That drove me nuts.
It’s fun, but only “okay” overall. Unless you’re buying it for a kid who’s particularly hot on science and would be actively turned off by cooking/crafting/gardening with Mama, you’d be better off with the original series than with the knockoff.
I’m reminded a bit of Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, which was very obviously a Final Fantasy X knockoff. Didn’t mean it was bad, but it was definitely playing follow-the-leader and trying to be slightly inventive without really understanding if it would work. This is the same way.
There isn’t that much to it. The main part of the game is doing the various experiment requests that come in via “email”, each one a series of tool minigames (similar to the various steps in each of Mama’s recipes). Until you unlock more experiments and more tools at the store, you’ll be doing the same ones over and over. The big “events” in the game are the five rounds of the “Helix Prize” competition, in which you go head-to-head with the other scientists. (Basically, you do an extended experiment while the computer is doing it at the same time, and you can throw smoke bombs and glue bombs to distract them and give yourself extra time. I passed every one on the first try.) You can clear the entire game in 4-5 hours; versus 6-8 for most Mama games (just to try everything once—if you’re going for perfect scores and completism, double that).
The tool minigames “override” each other—once you get the microwave, you never need to use the conventional oven again. But by the same token, when you buy the centrifuge (which you have to watch/time) you lose the filter (which you don’t). Oh, yes, that’s another of the gimmicks: You often have a choice of several tasks to do, and some of them just need for you to turn them on and wait. Usually, the cheaper version of the tool requires that you come back at the right time to turn it off, while the later versions turn themselves off and are automatically “perfect!” whenever you return to them.
It’s good at making the grunt work of science (measuring, mixing, waiting for things to bake or grow) seem fun, but I’m not sure how much science you can actually learn from it. The experiments range from making soap or hair dye to cloning dinosaurs, but I found myself too busy trying to get good scores on the minigames to actually pay attention to what I was doing and what the steps/ingredients were supposed to be.
But the most annoying thing about the game…
…is that Professor Science Papa has a very small word balloon…
…that they feel needs ellipses whenever there’s a continuous thought…
…even if video game convention has never used them.
That drove me nuts.
It’s fun, but only “okay” overall. Unless you’re buying it for a kid who’s particularly hot on science and would be actively turned off by cooking/crafting/gardening with Mama, you’d be better off with the original series than with the knockoff.
