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Wild Earth: African Safari Review for the Nintendo Wii

Wild Earth: African Safari Review for the Nintendo Wii

If you’re the kind of family that can easily spent hours in front of the tube watching strange nature shows on the National Geographic or Discovery Channel – where wild animals are either mating, eating one another other or roaming around aimlessly to an extremely over-enthusiastic narrator prattling along about said activities – then delving into Wild Earth: African Safari on the Wii will be a familiar, if somewhat toned-down, experience.

Wild Earth: African Safari screenshot

Originally released on PC in late 2006, Wild Earth: African Safari has been dusted off the shelf by Majesco and given a few updates in the transition to the Wii. It was a wise choice considering the system’s popularity among families and younger gamers. The game is an overall good fit for Nintendo’s console and general audience. It’s a family-oriented title geared toward players of all ages (at least in most respects) that seamlessly mixes nature education and photo safari gameplay in such a way that they’ll be having fun without realizing they’re learning something new in the process.

Though there are goals to meet and objectives to attain, playing Wild Earth is less like playing a game per se and more like being immersed in a simulation. Armed with a high-powered camera, some courage, and two wacky narrators, players will venture out into the untamed plains of Africa to observe wildlife and score top-notch photographs of a wide range of exotic animals across 11 different excursions. You’ll be hoofing it on foot, riding in a helicopter, and bumping along the dusty roads in a run-down jeep to meet your quota and fill your magazine spreads with glossy gems.

Wild Earth: African Safari screenshot

The controls take some getting accustomed to. Movement is handled with the Nunchuk, while turning and camera controls are executed by pointing the Wii Remote. The camera can be zoomed in or out easily, and snapping a picture is done with a quick button press. Unlockable mini-games offer short distractions for younger players. The problem with these short diversions is that in most cases the controls are practically broken. A co-op multiplayer mode lets you work together with a friend on your photo assignments, but the main fun is through the solo missions themselves.

In each mission, you’ll be given an assignment list of different pictures to take in order to succeed. Primary picture objectives must be completed to progress, while secondary picture goals can be snapped to increase your numbers in order to meet the quota for the assignment; three-quarters of all of your shots must be made successfully or you’ll be forced to re-play the mission. Every time you take a picture it will pop up on the upper right portion of the screen for a few seconds, so you can instantly see how it came out. A limited number of shots from each mission can be saved to view later as a slideshow. Also at the end of each mission you can view an informative article about the different creatures you encountered, which features the images you took in the wild. It’s a cool addition.

Wild Earth: African Safari screenshot

The animal subjects of your photo excursions are quite varied, and you’ll learn a lot about many of the different species throughout the game. You’ll encounter plenty of lions, crocodiles, hippos, cheetahs, elephants, and giraffes, but there’s also ostriches, leopards, bats, frogs, hyrax, warthogs, rhinoceros, wildebeests, and many other photogenic creatures lurking in the numerous habitats you’ll trudge through. Each creature will react differently to your presence, and often you’ll see them interacting with one another – in both friendly and non-friendly ways. Like in the human world, drama and conflicts in the wild kingdom make for some spectacular images.

Wild Earth: African Safari screenshot

Running around the underbrush like a fool while taking pictures of wary beasts left and right may sound a bit drab, but it’s actually quite interesting at first. Often you’ll be required to take a picture of a specific animal, but you’ll also have to take them while they exhibit certain behaviors or engage in different activities. Seeking the animals out and setting up your shot is all part of the fun. Stand too far away, and you’ll have trouble nailing the shot; but get too close, and you’ll find yourself facing the business end of Mother Nature’s charging, snarling finest. An on-screen meter tracks how much you’ve disturbed nature during your photographic pursuits. Ticking off the native creatures too frequently will lower the meter and eventually cause the mission to fail. Fortunately, taking successful photographs will bring it back up into the green zone, and it never really becomes much of an issue unless you’re particularly careless.

Creatures and environments look good at a glance, but they don’t hold up quite as well to closer inspection. Essentially, the graphics either seem a tad dated or the creature models behave a little strangely when you zoom in close. However, the game’s target audience will likely care little, since the animals do sound and act as they would in the wild, and it’s convincing enough. The two narrators are occasionally funny and they provide lots of interesting factoids about the animals, their behaviors, and their habitats. Parents should appreciate knowing their kids will be soaking in some good information from playing. Kids will love the gross-out fun of photographing large mounds of elephant poop and watching one giraffe chew on another’s posterior.

Wild Earth offers a fascinating interactive romp through nature, but there are a few issues players will have to deal with on their adventures. You are free to explore wherever you please, but progressing from one grouping of photo assignments to the next during a mission requires you to be at a specific place to trigger the event. If you happen to miss the sweet spot, it’s easy to end up wandering around for a lengthy time unsure of where to go next or what to do to move forward. That said, there’s a little too much hand-holding in terms of the linear nature of each mission. You’re basically stuck moving from one area to the next to snap pictures based on prompts from the narrators. Another problem occurs when the screen gets too clogged up with information. For example, at one point the bars of dialogue text cut off the lower third of the screen, the upper right chunk was primarily obscured by a recently snapped picture, and the upper left portion was blocked by an extremely long list of secondary photo objectives.

For an all ages title that clearly caters to younger players, Wild Earth: African Safari is substantially entertaining on the Wii. Taking pictures of anything you like in any way you choose is excellent. Just be sure not to step in any elephant droppings.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.4 Graphics
Lots of animals to photograph and interesting environments to explore, but the graphics are a little disappointing when you get a close look at things. 3.5 Control
The main game controls work well, but the quite a few of the mini-games are nearly broken by poor control implementation. 4.4 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Superb African drumming and other music provided by Talking Drum Records. Animal sound effects are realistic. 3.8

Play Value
There’s a lot to explore.

3.7 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Complete 11 picture-taking missions with both primary and secondary objectives. Investigate the bold hyena during a midday thunderstorm. Observe gentle giraffes in the hidden valley from the aerial view of a helicopter. Meet a family of elephants as they take care of their young, etc.
  • An exclusive new Safari Game mode only for the Wii lets you use the Wii Remote to play from the animal’s perspective in 11 different games
  • Includes more than 30 African animals including: cheetah, crocodile, crowned crane, elephant, flamingo, frog, bat, gazelle, giraffe, hippo, hyrax, leopard, lion, ostrich, oxpecker, pangolin, rhinoceros, meerkat, tortoise, trout, vulture, warthog, wildebeest, and zebra
  • Brand new cooperative multiplayer mode gives players the choice to drive the vehicle or snap photos while playing with anywhere from 1 to 3 friends.
  • Photos collected are placed into an animated slide show presentation of informative articles. In addition, players can select their own favorite photos to keep in their portfolio.
  • The Impact Meter tracks how much of a disturbance you are to the natural habitat. If you disturb too many animals or get too close to them, your Wii Remote will rumble at varying degrees, making it harder to take a steady picture. If the Impact Meter becomes completely depleted, you fail the mission.
  • Experience accurately presented flora and terrain from the Serengeti National Park in Africa, at different times of day and in varied weather. Grasses, shrubs, flowers, kopjes (rocky outcroppings), streams, and lakes provide a life-like experience and terrific photo opportunities.
  • Features hours of inspiring soundtrack from the world music label Talking Drum Records in Santa Monica, CA

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