Media Macaroni

The I Spy book series by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick is amazing for kids of all ages, but you’re missing out if you’ve never tried I Spy in interactive form. The CD-ROMs are incredible. I Spy Fantasy is the favorite in our house. Though it’s meant for older kids, Olive likes to play on my lap or on her own, finding objects we’ve previously found together. I’ll own up to a personal bias here – I was the producer on I Spy Mystery, and dear friends produced the other I Spy titles. But they’re great games, I swear! The latest I Spy titles in the franchise push the interactive envelope. There’s I Spy Funhouse on Nintendo DS, and recently Ultimate I Spy was released for Nintendo Wii.

Ultimate, indeed. I Spy on the Wii is the most interactive it’s ever been. It starts with this mystery machine. What is it? You’ll have to solve the riddles to find out. 

There are 40 riddles in the game, and to solve them you find the hidden objects in the picture. The Time Tower is my favorite. You have to set the clock to different times of the day to find all of the objects. The lighting changes are really lovely. 

The riddles are also full of mini-games that need to be completed, like rolling a ball through a maze, racing fish through an aquarium, juggling, flying paper airplanes, and playing paddleball. These games make great use of the Wii’s motion capabilities.

The other truly great addition in Ultimate I Spy is the multiplayer functionality. Any unlocked mini-game can be played multiplayer, and even better than that, two people can look for riddle objects at the same time. This is a great way for the younger players to play along. 

If you’re game for a clever, thoughtful puzzler, then Ultimate I Spy is right for you. Check out the game trailer here. 

On Amazon: Ultimate I Spy

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 2:13 am and is filed under Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.