|
MumboJumbo's and QB9's ZoomBook: The Temple of the Sun is either an interactive storybook or a jigsaw puzzle with one heck of a plot. The premise is based on the idea that you're flipping through a kind of journal or scrapbook that tells the story of two archaeologists, John Miles and Linda Stevens. The two discover a strange artifact, which leads them to explore the mysteries of an ancient long-lost South American civilization. The story is told in comic book-style picture panels with text dialogue underneath. But here's the twist: each new picture panel is scrambled into square pieces of varying size, and in order to move on to the next part of the story, you must fit the pieces back together like a jigsaw puzzle. There are sometimes sub-puzzles within a larger puzzle that show a new event happening within that particular picture panel - for example, complete the puzzle of a mysterious wrapped package and it will open to reveal a treasure. And thanks to colourful tropical environments and some clever graphical transitions like zooming in and out on parts of the scene, the atmosphere really does feel like being inside a big interactive picture book. With three levels of difficulty, ZoomBook is suitable for a range of abilities and ages. There's also the intriguing hint that more chapters might be added to the adventure at a later time. Could this be Book 1 of a much larger series? The ingredients are certainly there.
|
