[Roo Avery®™]

Developer: Blitz Arcade
Publisher: Xbox LIVE Arcade
Genre: Family
Game Rating: E (Everyone)
Player Options: 1-4
Online Multiplayer: 2-4
Extras:
Content Downloads
Leaderboard’s

Firstly let’s get one thing straight, this game won’t make you smarter. So if you are considering buying it for the sole purpose of becoming a Nuclear Physicist then you can keep on dreaming. That said I don’t think Blitz arcade would even try to sell the game on that.

In all there are 16 different mini-games for you and your loved ones to take part in that can also be combined into a never ending combination of Game Show modes to play through. Failing that you can use the 16 mini games to construct a game show of your own.



So what kind of challenges can you expect to face in EE? There are reaction time challenges, mathematic challenges, pattern recognition and memory challenges. Having played through the lot and even inviting my 12 year old brother over to take a go it is apparent the younger audience are not interested in the mathematic style games. However the reaction and pattern recognition challenges seem to go down a treat. Do you remember the ‘Test the Nation’ show on ITV? That horrible IQ test your partner made you sit through? Well the mathematics part of EE was like a horrible round out of that.

Graphically the game is nothing exceptional or amazing. Your avatar doesn’t really do a lot other than sit around and look confused at what you are doing. That said however the presentation is surprisingly crisp and moves on at a good pace and the British host is highly amusing.

The single player game show can get quite challenging as new opponents are unlocked and you battle them head to head. The difficulty of the mini-games is inconsistent, resulting in an experience that will sometimes be easy enough for very young players and other times too arduous for adults. I am under the impression that Blitz occasionally forgot who their audience was.



Multiplayer really makes things interesting. You can play locally or over Live with up to 4 other human players. However I struggled for days to find anyone to actually play against and there are still under 2000 players on the leaderboard’s.

And what’s with the noodles I hear you asking from afar? Well noodles are currency to buy you a new mascot. And why do I need a mascot I hear you reply. Well… they cheer you on during the game show, obviously! You can earn noodles from single player games and multiplayer games also.

To close I have to say that the idea behind Encleverment Experiment was a good one. But unfortunately the developers seem to have forgotten who their audience was on more than one occasion which has resulted in some rounds being either to easy or so hard they just are no longer any fun. The second thing to realise is that I doubt kids are going to want to sit around and answer maths problems on a Saturday night during ‘Family time’. More likely they are going to want to blow their dad up on Modern Warfare 2. However with Christmas just around the corner, this will make a perfectly acceptable time killer whilst waiting for the turkey to finish in the oven.

And so end my short and sweet review with a modest score;

6.5 / 10