Pogo fans will recognize Pogo Island, a game that blends five popular Pogo games with an adventure. Pogo Island consists of Poppit!, Word Whomp, Phlinx, Tri-Peaks Solitaire, and Squelchies. You can play these games individually through the Quick Play option or go on an adventure as Perry the Parrot Captain.
As Captain Perry Parrot, the player works to reunite with the mascots and earn supplies to repair the boat to sail away from the island. The five Pogo games adopt an island look-and-feel to fit in with the story.
Micro-games appear throughout the adventure to help players collect the needed tools to fix the boat. Players earn ranks so they can work their way up from Explorer to Island Guru. They also work hard for the tokens, which players can transfer to their Pogo.com accounts if they have wireless set up on the Nintendo DS for connecting to the Internet. Pogo Island awards badges when players reach milestones like "Win 5 games of Phlinx."
The mini-versions of Pogo's popular games translate well on the small screen. However, the game didn't provide instructions every time a player encountered a game for the first time. Not everyone has played all the games and micro-games on Pogo.com.
It's standard for Nintendo DS games to provide help the first time players play a game. Players can access the help or tutorial anytime from the main menu. However, the micro-game instructions don't appear in the help section. Not all micro-games are obvious that anyone can figure them out without help.
An eight-year-old took interest in Pogo Island and chose to play it over the latest greatest game he recently purchased. However, he became understandably frustrated with the All Aboard, a dull slingshot micro-game. In fact, the micro-games were more of a nuisance than fun to play.
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1 - Ken Edwards
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