Jungle Book
You Can Be a Star!
A Review of Jungle Book from IBM
Karina Worlton
You are running through the jungle with a tiger hot on your heels. As you jump over branches and tear through the underbrush, you look back occasionally to see the tiger closing in on you. Suddenly the ground starts to sink under your feet. Quicksand! You reach out, hoping to grab something, anything, to pull yourself back to dry ground. Just when there is no hope left, a hand reaches out to pull you to safety. Then the real adventure begins!
Over the years, Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book has been a favorite with kids of all ages, featured in animated films, movies, and bedtime story books. IBM’s Jungle Book MOVIEGAME, targeted at 5-9 year olds, will delight those who already love it, and capture those who are not yet familiar with the classic story. This is IBM’s first MOVIEGAME, which combines film footage with interactive game adventures. In this story, King Louie’s crown has been stolen and you have been sent to retrieve it. With the help of Colonel Ilgwom, LaTee the chimpanzee, and the spirit of Mowgli, you must find the crown and return it to King Louie.
As you travel through the jungle, you will have choices to make. The choice you make determines what happens next, much like the choose-your-own-adventure books. Take one path and you will have the chance to save Baloo. Take another and you will run into the soldiers who stole the crown. Since you choose the direction you will go, you can play the game again and each time you will play it differently. You can also play the game at the junior and expert levels, giving more variety to game play.
You also will want to increase your Jungle Instinct Quotient. You can gain instinct by clicking on yellow “stars” that appear briefly on the screen, and when you do, you will see a video clip from the Disney feature film. These instinct spots don’t stay on the screen very long, so you have to move quickly.
Another way to collect instinct is to repeat what LaTee says when you are told to do so. The game includes a microphone and a list of jungle jargon. While the speech recognition capabilities of the program are impressive, you need to be very precise in what you say. Repeating the exact “phrase” the chimp instructs you to say is difficult, and sometimes the program doesn’t recognize it if you don’t have the exact inflection. Nonetheless, this feature shows great promise for future games.
Under the options menu, you can turn off the speech recognition feature and instead challenge your skills with monkey puzzles. For example, you can play Whack-a-Monk, which is, you guessed it, a variation on a tried-but-true carnival game. Another monkey puzzle is Monkey Match, in which you match monkey faces in pairs, similar to concentration.
Overall, this product is very well done. Jungle Book comes on two CD’s because of the abundance (more than 100 minutes) of film footage. The microphone is of good quality and you can use it with other products that call for one. You won’t have trouble installing the game, though you will need to set up the microphone and the voice recognition abilities. Your children will enjoy it, unless they never get to play because you keep playing!
School House Scorecard
| Product: | Jungle Book |
| Company: | IBM Multimedia Studio |
| Cost: | $39.95 |
System Requirements:
Windows 95 or 3.1, 486DX 66MHz (or higher) IBM or 100% compatible PC, 8MB RAM or higher, 10MB disk space, SVGA/256 colors, CD-ROM drive (double speed), Sound Blaster or 100% compatible sound card, Mouse, Microphone (provided in package), Hardware accelerated video (not required).
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 3
Learning Value N/A
Entertainment Value 5
Graphics 5
Sound 4
Overall Score:
(* 0 rating, 0 votes)
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