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Introduction The Adventures of Valdo and Marie is a delightful “edutainment” title from UbiSoft Entertainment, back before they became UbiSoft. It is now out of print and I found it difficult to get UbiSoft to even admit that they had ever heard of it. But it can still be found occasionally on eBay and at yard sales. I hope posting this review and a walkthrough will help lend it some well-deserved immortality.
The game takes place in the 17th century, just before the Spanish Armada, back when Portugal dominated the seas. Valdo and Marie are two children who are traveling to Japan with their father and uncle aboard one of the most advanced ships of their day. Along the way they will have many adventures dealing with dangers and strange cultures.
And for those of you have have been reading my other game reviews and are used to hearing me say how I didn't enjoy the games, I have now broken the tradition and can honestly say I enjoyed playing this game very much. So my challenge now is to be careful not to overrate the game. Gameplay Exploration is the classic static slide show. The cursor changes shape when you hit a hotspot allowing you to move to another screen, talk to someone or interact with an object. The hotspots were large enough and the changes dramatic enough that I never had to go back and play Hunt-The-Pixel. So the Navigation was everything you would want it to be.
There were a few dialog tree puzzles where you had to say the right thing to get the good response. They were fairly positive – rewarding polite behavior and punishing snotty behavior. So I was pleased with them. The inventory based puzzles were well done. There were only a few items to carry in your inventory at any given time. They were easy to find and usually made sense to the puzzle. The only one that gave me fits was the larger puzzle of finding the pieces to the map throughout the game. To this day I have not found the last piece, but it may be due to a programming bug.
One frustrating part of the gameplay was that it was possible to go to the next scene before you had finished the current scene successfully. In fact, if you failed some puzzles you would be taken to the next scene with no opportunity to go back and try again. Fortunately, you have ample opportunity to save games and restore to try again later. This is a little different than the classic problem of dying in a game since you don't always know that there was more to do before you move on. Then you are stuck trying to figure out what you are missing, where you missed it, and which saved game takes the closest to it. One gripe I had was that there are two different good endings to the game. But to get to the second ending you must let a certain puzzle time out without solving it. This will take you to a continent that you otherwise would never visit. But there is no indication that this is a timed puzzle – it looks like any other part of the game. And it takes 8 minutes for the timeout. What nine year old is going to wait that long? I suspect only people with a walkthrough would find this solution.
I give gameplay a solid “B+.” Story
The pirates were rather bloodless – a big battle takes place and nobody has a scratch to show for it. Then you get rid of them by proving you are friends with a friend of the first mate. Not exactly historical, but better than subjecting nine year olds to impaling and torture. But all in all the story was quite reasonable for its intended purpose. I give it another “B+.” Education Will you actually learn something from playing this game? Well, I personally learned that these Portuguese ships were steered via a long lever as opposed to the familiar ship's wheel. There were many other such tidbits which helped make history come alive.
Some of the puzzles also emphasized just how dependent the old ships were on wind and current. The game also does a good job in teaching that actions have consequences, some of which might not show up until a long time later. Decisions made early in the game could affect its outcome. You won't come out of this game as an expert of 17th century sailing, but you will have a greater appreciation of what people back then had to go through. Which, to my way of thinking, gives it a “B.” Graphics Cartoon in the style made popular by Lucas Arts. All well done. Nothing outstanding. Nothing to complain about. Excellent characterization of the people. A solid “B+.” Good sounds. Good music. Good voice acting (it even sounded like a Saturday morning cartoon with fast talking trying to fit within the lip movement). Nothing outstanding. Nothing to complain about. A solid “B+.” Addictability Good. Yes, I wanted to finish it. Yes, I lost some sleep over it. Yes, I want to play it again to the sake of writing a walkthrough. No, my job was never threatened by it. Another solid “B.” Conclusion
Anyway, I suggest you keep an eye out for this game, wherever you find your old abandoned games. It was fun. I learned a little. And I'm always impressed when someone actually creates a new Sokoban puzzle. But as much as I enjoyed it, I will stick to my guns. To rate an “A” a game must either set a new standard of excellence or totally nail the current standard. A's should be rare. So without hesitation I award this classic oldie a “B+.” Final Grade: B+ System Requirements:
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