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Pen Pen TriIcelon
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Graphics & Sound:
The graphics in Pen Pen TriIcelon are cute; "cartoony" and cute. Very nicely done, but extremely cute. The sound effects and soundtracks are equally cute and just as fitting. If you like childish, overly cute characters, you'll love Pen Pen TriIcelon. If you don't - BEWARE. The characters in Pen Pen will suck you in and devour your mind. Sure, they may look innocent, even cuddly, but their only objective is to get you addicted. There's just a little something in the characters' designs to grab you. Don't take this as a challenge. Don't think you can resist it. You're probably thinking, "I wouldn't like this stupid kids game... I would probably just laugh at it if I played it once, then I'd walk away and never want to play it again." No, no, no! That's how they work, see? They figure you'll try it that one time just to laugh at it... but I beg you, don't let yourself find out who gets the last laugh!
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Gameplay:
In theory - simple. Boringly so. Imagine a triathlon style event for penguins. What do penguins do? They waddle, splash and slide. That's about it. So, your 'running' is reduced to a ridiculously slow pace, since you have big feet and no legs to speak of. Instead of finding a way to make a racing game that increases the feeling of whizzing by ever faster, in the fine tradition of racing genre games, Pen Pen offers us the world's slowest running game. All you do is waddle, swim, and slide. And the pace only gets somewhat fast when sliding downhill. In practice, however, you'll find that the game is addictive. The first game is not really much fun to play. Basically, you will lose and be bothered by the fact that the Pen Pens that beat you were going so slow and made so many mistakes, and still left you in the dust. The second time you play, you'll do better, but you'll wonder why anyone would even make this game. After the third game, you are beyond help. The cuteness will get to you, and at the same time, you will begin to see strategy in the way you run the races. The game definitely grows on you.
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Difficulty:
There is a lot of subtlety which must be mastered in Pen Pen TriIcelon to be your best. The Easy courses are relatively easy, but the harder difficulty levels are remarkably so. Typically, the easy levels pit you against four other Pen Pens in a race that is short and has few obstacles. The Medium difficulty track will be a little longer, possibly increasing the difficulty of the obstacles, and will pit you against five other Pen Pens. The Hard levels will increase the length of the race even more, up the difficulty of the obstacles so far encountered, and add yet another opponent, bringing the total to SEVEN Pen Pens. If you manage to come in first in all three difficulty settings on any one given track, you will be met with additional challenges, like beating six of your "friends" (duplicates of your character, controlled by the CPU), or racing against the mysterious Hanamizu, who knows how to use the tricks of the tracks to his advantage. The range is well balanced, allowing beginners to have a fighting chance in the easy races, and offering a challenge to more skilled players in the longer races.
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Game Mechanics:
The graphics engine works nicely, being smooth, yet not flashy. As far as what you actually do, you just waddle (by holding the analog stick forward), swim (by rhythmically pressing and releasing the 'A' button), and slide (also by rhythmically pressing and releasing the 'A' button). This is not very complicated in itself. In Pen Pen TriIcelon, however, the "devil is in the details." The little things, such as the "accessory" that you are awarded when you place first in a race, or the little obstacles that get more difficult as the tracks get longer, or the little antics of each of the characters at the end of the races... they all come together to form a well designed, addictive game.
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-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins |
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