Puffins Island Adventure is an animal sim, but it's not like any animal sim you've played before. Unlike games like Nintendogs or Petz, rather than caring for the animals, you actually take the role of a fledgling puffin as you attempt to learn all the skills necessary to survive.
One of the great things about this game is how it educates you about puffins without feeling like an educational game. All of the skills you need to learn are accomplished in the form of minigames, and factoids and videos of real puffins are unlocked or scattered throughout the story in a way that's not overbearing.
The art style is super cute and all of the minigames are pretty fun. The game mechanics aren't new or especially innovative, but they're still fun and increase in difficulty at a good clip, so even seasoned gamers will experience a bit of a challenge.
Another nice touch in the game is that you can customize your nest by collecting golden capelin (fish that puffins eat in real life) throughout the minigames and then spending them in the store to decorate your home.
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You unlock new games and levels by interacting with other puffins on the island, and this brings me to my only complaint with the game. The other puffins rarely have anything very interesting to say other than the fact that you unlocked a new game. From time to time, one of them will have a quest for you, but that's about it. This element could have been much more interesting if the other puffins had personalities and variety in how they talked to you, similar to Animal Crossing. As it is, they're just there as devices to disseminate information and there's really no way to distinguish one puffin from another one. But that's really a small complaint in a game that's otherwise really good.
This game is intended for younger kids, and for that audience, it's really great. If you've got kids who love animals, of if you're an animal-lover yourself, you shouldn't be disappointed with Puffins.
Overall Recommendation: Check it out Why no numerical score?
Comments
Interesting that one of the people thanked on the official site for the game is the writer of this so-called "review".
Possible conflict of interest there?
I was thanked on the official site because I was one of only a handful of press who actually covered the game at all. That did not have any bearing on my review.
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