Wild Earth: African Safari

When Pokemon Snap came out on the Nintendo 64, young gamers were able to pick up a virtual camera and hunt down unique Pokemon and snap a picture of them in their natural habitat. It was a simple game but it was fun and an interesting way of introducing photography to the very young. Several years later and Nintendo gives us its revolutionary Nintendo Wii console that would see perfect for a game similar to Snap only using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk attachment. Unfortunately, Wild Earth: African Safari - while an educational title - just doesn’t manage to be fun or truly innovative as it could have been on the Wii.

In African Safari, you take up the role of a photojournalist on assignment in the African Serengeti as you are commissioned to take photos of the indigenous wildlife for Wild Earth Magazine. It’s quite an opportunity to be out in the wild taking pictures of everything from wild birds, exotic insects and animals such as rhinos and hippos. Seen in first-person view, you practically are looking through the lens of your camera throughout the assignment so you are free to take pictures immediately.

Go On Assignment is the game’s main mode where you are followed by the voices of two invisible guides that provide fascinating little tidbits about the animals you’ll get to see throughout the game. You’ll be given photo objectives as you move along and these objectives can be very specific. You’ll be asked to snap a picture of a giraffe eating from a tree branch or a hippo moving its ears while the two guides explain each behavior in detail. There are also objectives that have you taking photographs of specific flora and fauna or even a body of water. Even if you complete all the objectives you can take extra photographs for your own portfolio.

Sadly, this Africa feels unexciting even with the animals on display. It doesn’t take long for you to encounter a herd of elephants or a small group of zebra grazing but oftentimes the wild is just a flat, barren landscape. This, however, is not the problem with African Safari. The real problem is in the photography itself. There are times when you won’t be able to find the objective even with the Direction Finder feature that tells you if you’re close to the subject. When you find yourself stuck, all you have to do is just snap away wildly until somehow you manage to capture the image you were supposed to capture. Don’t worry, you never run out of film. Wouldn’t it have been more interesting if you ran out of film at a crucial moment and you had to wiggle the Wii Remote to change film or a fresh memory stick?

Just about the only challenge you’ll find in the game is not scaring off the animals. It’s a bit startling when you get too close to a young elephant male who charges at you but all you have to do is turn around and run away before it simply loses interest in you. The game’s repetitive cycle is only broken when, at some point, you ride in a jeep to snap action photos of lions on a hunt. Younger gamers might get bored quickly with the game and with very little challenges, you can’t blame them.

There is a co-op multiplayer mode that allows gamers to play along with up to three other friends. This way you and friend can cover the objectives more quickly and one of them can even drive a jeep while the other takes the pictures. Completing the main mode, you also unlock a series of eleven mini-games. The mini-games are actually fun and downright hilarious. Each game has you assuming the role of an animal so in Elephant Wash, you guide an elephant’s trunk as you wash a parade of dirty animals with water from a lake. Vulture Pilot has you flying through hoops as a vulture and Flamingo Dancer is Dance Dance Revolution-styled musical mini-game. Young gamers will certainly have a blast with these games.

African Safari will bring back memories of the old Nintendo 64 console with its flat textures and weak visual effects that take away from being in Africa. Watching trees and foliage pop-up will make you cringe and the African sky looks washed out. The animals actually do look good at times, especially from afar, and the animal animations can be decent while others make the animals seem mechanized.

As far as the sound is concerned, the game has a wonderful soundtrack. Personally, I wish the main menu music played during the main mode since it’s colorful and lively African music. The rest of the soundtrack is actually excellent as well and the two voices of the guides are agreeable and you won’t really mind their constant interruptions. Their facts are not only interesting but by the end of the game you’ll know a thing or two about each animal. As for the sound effects, the game disappoints in a major way. You won’t hear insects and the breeze and the only time you’ll hear an animal is if you’re a bit too close to them. This is another reason you won’t feel like you’re in the African bush.

Wild Earth: African Safari for the Nintendo Wii is an educational experience but one that lacks gameplay that is fun enough to keep younger gamers interested for very long. Snapping pictures of animals could have been fun but there’s no real challenge here that will make you feel much like a photojournalist or an adventure-seeker in Africa. It was a good attempt that just falls short in so many ways that I find it hard recommending this game.

Gameplay: 5.0
Kids will learn about predators and some of the habits elephants and other “target” animals will exhibit but the photography portion is way too simplistic and unchallenging to be much fun. The Wii controls aren’t implemented as well as they should. The game misses the mark completely in terms of photojournalism.

Graphics: 4.5
The graphics will remind gamers of the Nintendo 64 with the flat textures and plain backgrounds that will turn off those gamers who love good graphics. At least the animals look good through the lens of your camera but as far as animation goes you are in for a huge disappointment.

Sound: 6.0
Sadly, the sound effects are very minimal so you don’t feel like you’re out in the wild. Secondly, the animal sounds are looped and take away from the experience. Thankfully, the voice acting is decent and the music is excellent at times.

Difficulty: Easy
Occasionally, there are some hard-to-find subjects to photograph but it’s nothing snapping away blindly with your camera won’t fix. While you never run out of film the only real challenge keeping from startling the animals.

Concept: 5.0
The narrators do a good job of offering fun animal facts and sometimes the objective isn’t as easy to find as one might think. Still, there’s very little change in gameplay and you rarely feel like you’re out in the African wild. At least there’s co-op multiplayer and a few mini-games to break up the repetitive story mode.

Multiplayer: 5.5
One player can drive the jeep while the other can snap pictures of animals. It’s simple and a tad more fun with a friend but only if said friend can drive without the temptation of running over the animals. Up to three friends can join in and help you capture those rare animals that might be too hard for you to find on your own.

Overall: 5.0
Young gamers will rarely be challenged by Wild Earth: African Safari and, while there are some interesting lessons to learn, the repetitive gameplay make this a game they will only want to play once. There are fun mini-games and co-op works well, but ultimately this game falls short in the gameplay department.