Mega Bloks: Diego’s Build and Rescue Takes Kids on a Habitat Adventure
About.com Rating
Mega Bloks: Diego’s Build and Rescue game for the Nintendo DS takes kids on an adventure as Diego heads out on a quest to save endangered species and get them safely back to their habitat, while using Mega Bloks to build structures like ladders, bridges that get Diego through each level. Based on the Nickelodeon show, Go Diego Go!, the game teaches kids the value of keeping animals safe in their environment.
Diego's Build and Rescue is aimed at children in pre-K through elementary school, and is fun for girls and boys alike.
Game Play
Diego’s Build and Rescue features five habitats for kids to explore: the rainforest, arctic, savannah, mountains and the ocean where they have to help a different animal build a new habitat, like the capybara in the rainforest or the wolverine in the artic. Even the Rescue Pack plays an integral role popping up for kids to choose different tools to help Diego navigate along his journey.
Typical with the Go Diego Go! franchise and Nickelodeon's Dora's Cooking Club, the game is played in English with Spanish vocabulary scattered throughout. Diego rewards correct answers with an “Excelente!” or “Muy Bien!” and encouragingly saying “No, that’s not it” or “Try again” when wrong answers are submitted. If the child still has trouble with the challenge, the game will highlight the correct answer with sparkles.
Within each habitat along the journey, kids are incentivized to find adventure patches, animals to rescue and field journal pages.
As they find animals across each level, they'll earn a page out of Diego’s Field Journal, which unlocks facts about that particular animal and their habitat. Collect enough and they’ll be able to unlock a rescue badge.
Ease of Play
Diego’s Build and Rescue has simplified controls, for instance to jump, you can hit any one of the A, B, X or Y buttons or tap the touchscreen. However, the simplified controls aren't always intuitive. For instance, when building a ladder of Mega Bloks, it makes sense to use the stylus to drag Mega Bloks from their pile to create the ladder, but you also have to use the stylus to draw an up arrow for Diego to climb up the ladder. The control pad won't control his actions at this part, which can be frustrating for kids figuring out how to play the game.
While four or five year olds may need parental help to solve a few of these issues, all of the instructions are spoken or shown on the screen so that kids don't have to know how to read to play the game.
Overall
The characters and habitats will be familiar to viewers of Go Diego Go! and offers three different options per level, giving kids an opportunity to explore each habitat in a different way. They can explore on foot, as they seek out pieces of the habitat’s rescue vehicle. Once they find the pieces, they can construct and then navigate the rescue vehicle across the habitat. Lastly, they can travel on foot looking for animals and building them a new habitat.
While using Mega Bloks to build a variety of structures isn’t vital to the storyline of the game, they are well integrated into Diego's journey. Young boys and girls alike will enjoy learning about the animals featured in Diego’s Build and Rescue, and I think it's best suited for kids four years old and up.
ESRB: Everyone (E)
Developer: Take-Two Interactive Software
Distributor: 2K Play Publishing
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
Mega Bloks: Diego’s Build and Rescue game for the Nintendo DS takes kids on an adventure as Diego heads out on a quest to save endangered species and get them safely back to their habitat, while using Mega Bloks to build structures like ladders, bridges that get Diego through each level. Based on the Nickelodeon show, Go Diego Go!, the game teaches kids the value of keeping animals safe in their environment.
Diego's Build and Rescue is aimed at children in pre-K through elementary school, and is fun for girls and boys alike.
Game Play
Diego’s Build and Rescue features five habitats for kids to explore: the rainforest, arctic, savannah, mountains and the ocean where they have to help a different animal build a new habitat, like the capybara in the rainforest or the wolverine in the artic. Even the Rescue Pack plays an integral role popping up for kids to choose different tools to help Diego navigate along his journey.
Typical with the Go Diego Go! franchise and Nickelodeon's Dora's Cooking Club, the game is played in English with Spanish vocabulary scattered throughout. Diego rewards correct answers with an “Excelente!” or “Muy Bien!” and encouragingly saying “No, that’s not it” or “Try again” when wrong answers are submitted. If the child still has trouble with the challenge, the game will highlight the correct answer with sparkles.
Within each habitat along the journey, kids are incentivized to find adventure patches, animals to rescue and field journal pages.
As they find animals across each level, they'll earn a page out of Diego’s Field Journal, which unlocks facts about that particular animal and their habitat. Collect enough and they’ll be able to unlock a rescue badge.
Ease of Play
Diego’s Build and Rescue has simplified controls, for instance to jump, you can hit any one of the A, B, X or Y buttons or tap the touchscreen. However, the simplified controls aren't always intuitive. For instance, when building a ladder of Mega Bloks, it makes sense to use the stylus to drag Mega Bloks from their pile to create the ladder, but you also have to use the stylus to draw an up arrow for Diego to climb up the ladder. The control pad won't control his actions at this part, which can be frustrating for kids figuring out how to play the game.
While four or five year olds may need parental help to solve a few of these issues, all of the instructions are spoken or shown on the screen so that kids don't have to know how to read to play the game.
Overall
The characters and habitats will be familiar to viewers of Go Diego Go! and offers three different options per level, giving kids an opportunity to explore each habitat in a different way. They can explore on foot, as they seek out pieces of the habitat’s rescue vehicle. Once they find the pieces, they can construct and then navigate the rescue vehicle across the habitat. Lastly, they can travel on foot looking for animals and building them a new habitat.
While using Mega Bloks to build a variety of structures isn’t vital to the storyline of the game, they are well integrated into Diego's journey. Young boys and girls alike will enjoy learning about the animals featured in Diego’s Build and Rescue, and I think it's best suited for kids four years old and up.
ESRB: Everyone (E)
Developer: Take-Two Interactive Software
Distributor: 2K Play Publishing
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
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