Unless you're a crazed National Geographic fan that obsessively purchases every item its name is attached to, Arctic Tale won't end up on your personal shopping list. If you have kids, however, it just might be one of the games you're looking to buy. For some parents, it isn't always clear which games are made for a five-year-old and which ones were made to excite a 10-year-old. You also have to consider the child's other interests, perceived skill level, and the amount of time he or she spends playing games from different genres.

Arctic Tale seems to be made for the young Mario Party fan looking for a title that replaces the board game environment with a land you can explore. Controlling either a polar bear cub, an arctic fox, a walrus and a couple other animals, players will have to hunt for food, collect special coins (Silver and Gold Paws), and complete a series of mini-games that utilize the Wii remote's motion capabilities.

The game begins with the cub, a young-but-courageous animal trying to survive in one of the world's harshest climates. You won't feel the burn (or the cold, for that matter), as cliffs and icy cold lakes will not lead to your doom. The animals won't even be able to fall off the cliff, though they will get the chance to slide down a lengthy patch of ice in a motion-steered racing game. It's a time attack challenge, with gold, silver and bronze medals available for the taking. On your first time through, the game only expects you to meet the requirements for a bronze medal (cross the finish line in under 90 seconds). After that the silver challenge opens up. The only difference between the two is that the time limit has decreased. You'll have to move faster and slide with more precision to get the silver medal, and work even harder to get a gold medal after that.

Mini-games are activated by locating their respective spinning icons. When transparent, the game cannot yet be played (you’ll have to unlock it by finishing others first). Since the whole game is set in a fairly large arctic world, you'll likely spend the first 10 - 20 minutes exploring. This portion of the game is conducted with an equal amount of impressiveness and disappointment. Arctic Tale is noteworthy for having characters that are commanded by something other than an analog stick. Using the paw print cursor as a guide, players aim the remote in the direction they wish to move. Hold the A button and your animal will run toward the paw print.

This control style is above the average motion-heavy Wii game. But it's not without flaws. Players don't have control over the camera, just the animal. As you can probably imagine, that leads to a number of unavoidable problems, especially when navigating through the denser parts of the environment. Mountains are notorious for jerking the camera, and when they're not doing that you're at risk for losing sight of the game. The mountain may end up blocking the screen, and there isn't any way to prevent this from happening.

At the same time, players have to worry about exiting narrow areas that lead to dead ends. Sometimes you can see that there aren't any Silver Paw coins in these areas. But when you can't, any smart gamer will enter to see what (if anything) is inside. Silver Paws are needed to unlock new characters, which in turn are needed to access all of the mini-games, which is what Arctic Tale is really about. Doing so, however, leads to a battle against the camera – a view that is less tame than the animals you're in charge of.

Among the mini-games are a bear variation of shuffleboard (slide your bear toward a target), a scavenger hunt for meat (dead animals of course – no killing in this game!), and a balancing act where you'll have to shake the remote to defeat your cub sibling in a game of push-or-get-pushed off the ice. There are other mini-game types, like a tug-of-war food fight, a walrus chase sequence, and other collecting games. This stuff is pretty standard but should be highly appealing to the target market.

Gameplay: 6.5
Without a great multiplayer component to build replay value, Arctic Tale’s lifespan is based solely on its short single-player adventure. While appropriate for some children, take a good look at your kid’s gaming collection before investing in this one. Arctic Tale doesn’t belong in the home of a child that has Nights or Mario Galaxy.

Graphics: 4.0
Not much of the Wii’s power was used in making Arctic Tale.

Sound: 5.0
The same music and sound effects are played repeatedly throughout each mini-game.

Difficulty: Easy
Built for young kids and it shows.

Concept: 6.5
The controls are the only original element. They’re good but need to be refined – count on having at least a few frustrating moments.

Multiplayer: 5.0
Arctic Tale is essentially a collection of mini-games. But it is not a party game. The few multiplayer options (only four of the 10+ mini-games offered in the single-player campaign) won’t enthuse kids for very long.

Overall: 6.1
Because of the childlike nature of the game, Arctic Tale isn't recommended to kids older than eight or nine. And if your eight-year-old has already been through a Mario, Crash or Sonic game (the platformer kind, not their party game iterations), he or she might not be overly amused by what this game has to offer. But if you or your kid wants an easygoing adventure/mini-game collection that's less violent than real nature, Arctic Tale is worth looking into.