Crayola Treasure Adventures DS review

Hey, we were always geeky about, er, Crayola crayons. And now they've made it into a game. For the kids, like.

Kim Kaze

Crayola crayons - a happy staple of childhood life for most of us (unless you ate one at school and got in trouble...).  Unsurprisingly, kids these days want more than just a stick of colour to play around with and so those lovely folks at Crayola have teamed up with Ignition to produce something for those of a younger disposition and who're lucky enough to have a DS.

Colourful, large icons and writing greet you straight away after you're done with the intro.  Immediately the game is simple, easy to read and requires very little gaming ability to play.  The fun is geared towards young children aged 3-7 in my view, making it cute to flick through as an adult, scribbling away at the colouring in puzzles.  These puzzles are broken down into three types - colouring in, jigsaws and dot to dot.

There's not too much frantic pressing or drawing to be found here, which should please parents not wanting their child destroying the screen with the stylus.  You'll sense a very controlled, steady environment.  In terms of in game content, it's totally child safe, featuring Crayola crayons and colour-stealing crystals.

Treasure Adventure works in two modes, adventure or colouring book.  Unlockable areas or pictures are available in both, giving older children reason to want to complete the game, whilst their younger siblings can scribble away not caring about advancing.  I found the stylus controls to be very easy - the only questionable moment was a race colouring in session where different parts of a scene light up and you have to colour them in quickly before another part lights up.

Of course, there's nothing here to entertain any other age group and it's all kept very simple.  Children whose motor skills are slower than average may struggle with some of the faster puzzles, but not terribly so.

All in all, this is an excellent puzzle and colouring game for younger children that keeps things simple and if only for a small audience, does very well what it's set out to do.  One for the school holidays if you've got a little'un about the house who has a DS, and your last crayon has been used up on the stair walls again.

3 out of 5

04/04/08