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Playmobil: Laura's Happy Adventure

Ubisoft

Kids embarking on Laura's Happy Adventures will encounter free-form problem solving and dizzying graphics as this program takes them from attic to underground fairy kingdom. Laura finds an enchanted diamond in her grandfather's rock collection and is given a task by the talking stone: she will unlock the stone's mysteries if she sets out on a mission to please the people she loves.
This program is "designed on extensive research of girls' social orientation" and will "challenge girls and develop social skills", according to the blurb on the box. This program's nice-girl emphasis on pleasing people is bound to raise some eyebrows, but we found that the CD-ROM delivered a more total experience than the blurb promised. Laura's Happy Adventures is a game within a game within a game. A player will find a magic bracelet, on which grandpa discovers a mysterious inscription. Then Laura must skip clear across town to the fortune-teller to discover what the inscription means. The fortune-teller then asks for an exotic feather before she will explain the message, and the adventure branches out in another direction... Thus the game weaves an interactive web that is easy to get caught up in.
This game has some annoying features. The program must be negotiated using the keyboard or a game pad: the mouse isn't an option. Manoeuvring Laura around her vast world using arrow keys is as clunky as her little Playmobil figure. And aligning her in front of doors, people and objects so she can interact with them is nightmarish. As the point-of-view swoops, zooms and circles around our heroine, an unskilled player may succumb to vertigo before figuring out how to control game play.
Now for the good news: the game is so absorbing your child will return to it repeatedly. And its free-form structure encourages resourcefulness. Kids must take some initiative, nose around and discover what needs to be done. If they don't, Laura simply stands there, fidgeting and tossing her hat. Other characters in the program give advice and hints, but only if the player makes Laura "ask".
Parents will probably need to help younger children get the hang of negotiating Laura's world. And if your youngster is prone to motion sickness, you might want some Dramamine nearby to help them stomach those dramatic graphics. Otherwise, this is a good exercise in deduction, listening and non-linear thinking. It is likely boys would enjoy it too--if you hide that pink box and those awful blurbs from them. (Ages 6 to 12) --Anne Erickson
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