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Miffy's World Nintendo Wii

Format:
Nintendo Wii

Genre:
Adventuring

Style:
Assistance
Cooperative

Buy/Support:
Support Andy, click to buy via us...

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Miffy's World offers a surprisingly involved adventure consisting of bite sized portions. Although Wii-mote pointing threatens to derail younger players, a clever parent assist mode ensures they stay on track.

Although Miffy has been eclipsed by the likes of Maisey, Peppa Pig and Charlie and Lola, I still have a soft spot for the monochrome bunny from my childhood. Because I struggle to persuade my offspring to read the books with me I was excited to discover a Miffy Wii-ware game.

Downloading the game on the Wii and getting it set up before showing it to them was quite magical. Seeing Dick Bruna's 1955 creation come to life on our cutting edge console made me smile. Fingers crossed the kids would like it too.

In the game, which makes no bones about being aimed at very young gamers, you help Miffy explore the beach, zoo and home, meeting familiar characters along the way. Through a series of tasks you can play your part in the sort of story the Miffy books have become famous for.

A nice touch is the two player mode. Here both players have their own Wii-mote and work together to solve puzzles. I could point at the screen and place stars to show my youngest where to guide Miffy. It was a simple idea, but one that meant even the very young gamers in our family (3, 5 and 7) could play.

The main game uses the D-Pad to move around the level and the Wii-mote pointing to interact with objects and characters. You can then choose an item you are carrying by pressing the B button. This was a little more complex that I expected, but reflects the ambitious gameplay for a title of this nature.

It all worked well for my kids apart from the pointing mechanic. This is just too fiddly on the Wii. In the end it meant that our youngest had to get someone to help him on all the pointing sections - which ended up making him rather frustrated and understandably so.

There are some simpler minigames that helped keep him interested though. You find these scattered through the levels. They are usually short picture games like placing items in the right place, painting a picture and spot the difference games. The last of these, spot the difference games were a real hit with our youngest and seemed to make up for his frustrations with the main game. This is all rounded off by some educational activities - animal matching, counting and the like - which were also popular in our household.

Miffy's World isn't all that cheap (1000 points - around 10 GBP), but considering that if this had been released on a disc it would have been at least 20 GBP it is pretty good value. Younger players will get the most out of it - provided they have a grownup or older sibling on hand to help if they get stuck.

Written by Andy Robertson

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Andy Robertson writes the Family Gamer column.

"Videogame reviews for the whole family, not just the kids. I dig out videogame experiences to intrigue and interest grownups and children. This is post-hardcore gaming where accessibility, emotion and storytelling are as important as realism, explosions and bravado."

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