The Fun is Frozen
OVERALL RATING: 2.5/10

Arctic Tale is one of those games that tries to draw you in with cute fluffy animals and then turns out to be more 'hoo ha' than actual enlivening content and game play.  It's got everything going for it when you consider the fact that most kids are drawn to exotic animals, but even the graphics can only make up for the lack of imagination for so long.  Based off the National Geographic documentary of the same title, there's no denying that more could have been done to keep players occupied.  Sure, you get to play as one of three animals and the game advertises your ability to explore, hunt, and fend for the cute animations' lives.... but in reality playing this game winds down to clicking some buttons just to watch a graphic blink out of or into existence.

GRAPHICS: 4/10
When you're playing one of three animals in the freezing arctic environment, what more is there to see after you've witnessed all the snow and ice?  Even the creatures chosen to be a part of the game are mostly white.  The walrus is the only exception to the color scheme, but when his only use is to swim under water... it's not as though he offers a huge relief to the game's visual monotony.  Thus, the game mainly consists of white, blue, and a little bit of brown.  Although this is understandable, it's disappointing that the artists didn't, at the least, create more colorful mini-games that would allow players to break free and taste a little eye candy.

With that being said, the cuteness of the sprites are really the only aspect of the game that might draw players in. There are grown polar bears, the baby polar bear, bunnies, an arctic fox, and a walrus.  However, when the only impressive part of the game happens to be the cute animals, it's a shame to note that the creators of the game didn't add more.  It makes sense to me, after all, to make the best of any winning characteristic, and it's not as though many games allow the option of playing arctic creatures.  Nonetheless, you're pretty much limited to these animals, and you can only play three of them.  What's more is that all grown polar bears and snow hares look exactly the same.  It's as though the same polar bear has a vendetta against anything that moves, and the same hare keeps deciding that it was never eaten by the fox.  It would have been nice to include small variations in the NPC animals.

In addition to this, the motion graphics aren't all that impressive.  When the fox catches a rabbit, for example, this is denoted by the two sprites coming into contact and the rabbit blinking a few times before vanishing.  Then, although the rabbit supposedly gives the fox more energy, there's nothing on the screen which shows the boost of energy your character was supposed to receive!  You start to wonder if you're poaching the cute rodents for absolutely no reason, and I still personally have seen nothing change whenever the fox catches one.

All of this aside, the game graphics simply lack details in all areas.  Even the identical circular shadow under every creature speaks of the artists' laziness.   Cave entrances are denoted by the exact same back shadow, the fox looks like it's squatting when it's supposedly just standing there, and the hare is hardly recognizable.  A closer inspection will even reveal that what little detail the game -does- have, is simply the same graphic repeated over and over again.  The specks of light on the snow and the ridges in plateau walls vary by about five pixels, and those same five pixelated spots are simply copy pasted everywhere in the game.  It's reminiscent of boring kitchen tile.

If you have a vivid imagination and love adorable animals in theory (for they certainly aren't that cute on screen!), then the graphics are the only thing going for Arctic Tale, earning it a solid 4/10. And quite frankly, if you enjoy this game due to graphics, the Wii's version of this game was much more visually stunning while maintaining the same, mind- numbing game play.

SOUND: 1/10
The sound is most arguably the worst part of this game.  I guess the game creators wanted the music to blend well with the kitchen tile floors, for nothing could be more redundant and annoying.  The same five or six beats are repeated over... and over... and over again.  Even worse, the five or six notes are -highly- irritating and sound like a pitiful attempt at capturing Disney's "magical environment."  You start to look forward to the mini-games, not because they have new music, but because there's a split second of silence as the game loads. 

That's right... the mini-games have the SAME music.  I wonder if the game creators set this up as some sort of experiment to see how many people would sacrifice their sanity for the sake of playing an arctic animal.  Seriously, if you can get through five minutes in the game without muting it, I applaud your strength.

The only other noise in the game that is even noticeable, is something akin to a bear roar.  It bursts into your ears whenever a menu gets brought up, you run into a hungry predator, or you start a mini-game. It's every bit as annoying as the music and sounds like obnoxious  static.  Considering the fact that you play two other animals, it doesn't make much sense that this is the only animal noise you hear, either.

ADDICTIVENESS: 2/10
This game did not, in all honesty, deserve a 2/10 for addictiveness. I simply gave it such a high rating because I know there are young kids that would insist this was the best game ever due to the uniqueness of its characters.  Even I myself suffered through the horrible music and cheesy graphics just so I could try playing each animal and exploring the map.  However, once I realized the map was just a large square maze with no chances to branch out, even walking around lost its appeal. (Imagine that!)

The mini-games simply aren't worth the effort, either.  Most of them require mashing buttons as fast as you can, steering an animal down a slide, or deciding how long to hold a button in order to slingshot an animal into a targeted area.  The games aren't fun.... they aren't creative.... and they have no hope of holding anyone's attention span or compensating for the grossly unimaginative graphics and sound.  Not only are they lazy, but they never get any better.  You're given the option to play the same game over and over again as though the creators thought you'd enjoy them in the first place.

STORY: 1/10
There's no story here.  I mean, sure you get to play the part of a cute fuzzy (or blubbery) animal that is striving to survive the harshness of their environment, full of perils and a lack of food and..... so what?  Even the creative geniuses that brought this game to life realized that story- line wasn't enough to warrant a fan base.  They simply failed to realize that adding boring and pointless mini- games didn't help their case either.

Then too, there's the fact that someone imagined it made sense for a polar bear to collect paw prints and furthermore, that these paw prints would look like shiny tokens floating mid- air.  And why, can someone tell me, is the fox the only creature than needs or wants to eat?  Why would -any- animal want to slide down a patch of ice and risk falling over a cliff?

As I stated, there's simply no story here.

DEPTH: 2/10
Why did I rate this category so highly?  Well, if I'm honest with everyone, this game has a lot to do!  You can play the mind- numbing mini-games until the ice caps melt.  In the mean time, I'll sit here hogging my space heater and playing something much better like Sheep.

DIFFICULTY: 1/0
If I could rate this in the negative, I would.  The only aspect worse than this game's difficulty is it's music.  There is absolutely no challenge or strategy to this game.  You walk around, you collect ridiculous blue paw print tokens, you grab red shapes that look like fruit, and occasionally you mash a few buttons to escape predictably hungry bears.  The hares travel the same paths, the predators stomp through the same line of snow, and never do the NPC's even travel in a diagonal direction.

Most games only require you to push a button for a certain length of time or to push buttons as fast as you can. There's no 'score', there's no lack of heath, and there are no new areas to open up and explore.



Overall, I think my opinion of this game should be fairly obvious.  Please, please do not waste your time by even letting this game load as you will most certainly be disappointed.  Instead, grab a blanket and write a few letters to PETA.  You'd be better spending your time doing that.
  Graphics 4   Sound 1   Addictive 2   Depth 2   Story 1   Difficulty 1

Arctic Tale is based on the National Geography documentary of the same name. Players control a polar bear (both cub and adult) trying to survive in a harsh climate of snowy landscapes. There are eleven stages where the little bear explores the environment, searches for foods and collects paw prints that unlock pictures in a photo gallery and additional chapters. Later, two other animals can be controlled as well: a walrus that is also able to explore underwater environment, the fast Arctic fox able to hunt down rabbits and an orca whale.The levels consist of free-roaming environments, on land or underwater, where the animals need to gather food to avoid having the heart icon fade away. While playing 16 different mini-games can be accessed where the player can earn bronze, silver and golds awards to unlock additional chapters. These games include Ice Slide (obstacle course), Shuffle (slide to the center of a ring), Food Fight, Ice Flow Rodeo (control a broken piece of ice through rough currents), Survive the Cold (cross an icy area using shelters to hide from the cold), Catch-a-Seal, Ice Sheet, Clam Scavenge (find eight hidden clams), Herd Flow (guide an ice block without hitting anything), Walrus Hunt, Orca Race and more.

Overall 6.6    Graphics 4    Sound 1    Addictive 2    Story 1    Depth 2    Difficulty 1

The Fun is Frozen   Singelli
OVERALL RATING: 2.5/10 Arctic Tale is one of those games that tries to draw you in with cute fluffy...
  Graphics 4   Sound 1   Addictive 2   Story 1   Depth 2   Difficulty 1
      Review Rating: 5/5     Submitted: 11-25-12     Updated: 12-01-12     Review Replies: 11

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Lycan212 12-01-15 - 04:55 AM
 Little cubbies O.O
Cindyrandomneko 05-05-13 - 07:59 PM
 Kinda boring, There is a wii version?
ndjdjksisksk 12-01-12 - 05:44 PM
 it's a lot better on wii
Bluey5 12-01-12 - 04:42 PM
 Well, this game is........interesting? Actually it is very boring. I don't know who would like this, but I wouldn't give it a try if I were you.