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Good for kids 5-10 years old

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: May 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My 9 year old daughter received this game for her Birthday. She loves the game. It also goes along with what they are studying in school as they are studying Africa in Social Studies right now. The graphics are good and there are lots of different animals to find and discover. The sounds of the animals are also good and their actions are kind of fun to watch too (espicially if you get too close to them). I would say this game is good for the 5-10 year old range. For kids younger than that, the controls might be a bit too difficult and finding some of the animals may get too frustrating. For kids older than that, I think they would probably get bored with the game unless they are really into animals. The missions take you to different areas of Africa where you need to find certain animals and take pictures of them to go into the final report. The final report is very informative, but I don't think most kids will even bother reading it. The mini games are cute, but pretty simple. Overall a good game for the age range it is intended for.

Very promising theme, but we are not there yet

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: May 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Believe or not, I have dreamed for an African safari photographing game from early PS2 age. I had the Africa Safari shooting game 2 years ago on Xbox. It turns out extremely boring, unfortunately, Wild Earth couldn't get much further from there.

It is frustrating to see safari games end up with chasing and shooting (use gun or camera). In the game, you basically follow a designed route. The events are marked on the upper left corner of your screen. Look around on you way, these objects and events are staged one by one. After the animals perform the show, they either keep doing it for the rest of their life, or stop doing anything all together. There is nothing more to see once you take the assigned photo. Trying to do a long term biology research is wasting time. You are free to "explore" off track a little bit, but nothing much to see either. Very soon you will learn to follow your tour guide.

There is no photographing mechanism to talk about. You have absolutely no control on your camera. Only cellphone like snap shot is possible. No shutter speed, no exposure control, no focus and no continuous exposure. Although, you do have a more or less 28mm-300mm zoom lens. Is that licensed photograph equipment? You must be kidding! I don't think expecting all these features is unreasonable. Gran Turismo 4 has done a highly sophisticated photo mode as an auxiliary mini game 3 years ago.

As a shooting for magazine game, it is a pity that the developer didn't corporate with real magazines like National Geographic or Discovery, who have more than 100 years experience on professional wild life articles. When an assignment is done, an article comes up with your photos. The editor will take whatever you submitted. No comments on the photograph. The texts are no more fun than a plain elementary school text book or a random reading board in the zoo. If this game is intended to be a kids' game, at least it should be as funny as NG for Kids.

In terms of graphics, Wii is not where a real life recreating game should start with. Animal models are better than environmental objects. The lighting environment is convincing, I don't know if whether effect is in the game or not yet. As we are use to the graphics like Uncharted today, this PS2 level graphics is hardly to be called interesting. One really nice thing to see in the game is the cloud. There are several layers passing overhead at different speed! Brilliant! The sound is better than I expected. The effect sounds real, but not as complex as real in real life. No wind can be heard.

I'm glad some developers realize that nature photographing can be a gaming genre to try, and I believe it can be very interesting and promising. But Wild Earth definitely is not deep enough to attract adults who interest in wild life and photographing. For kids, I hope they will stick on this game until the end of the semester.

Wild Earth is great!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Wild Earth African Safari is a fun and educational game about wildlife living in its natural habitat. Your mission is to take pictures of animals - observing them while not disturbing their environment.

The graphics are great, as the animals look very real, not cartoony. The facts given on the animals are very informative and entertaining. The narration is really easy to listen to.

My 8-year-old son loves it, and can usually find the animals faster than I can. He plays with his 6-year-old sister in cooperative mode. He does the walking (or driving) and she takes pictures. It is a great game for them to play together.

The mini games are fun! Our favorite game is a challenge to wash off as many muddy animals as you can with your elephant trunk!

Not quite a complete game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: May 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I picked up this game expecting a modern Pokemon Snap. Unfortunately, what I got was something less. It's not bad by any means but I did have a few complaints to expand upon other reviews.
1: The missions might as well run on a track. Sure it seems open and apt for exploration, but you will quickly learn that other than the event and creatures the tour guides point out, there is little to see.
2: There's little to no surprise. The list pops up anytime you enter a new area telling you exactly what you're looking for, ruining any element of the wild or unpredictable.
3: At the end of each mission it will judge you by how many pictures out of the total possible you got. No points for framing or close ups. Why not import something similar to Dead Rising's photo system? Even measuring elements of action or comedy would be a vast improvement to nothing.
4: The game will talk down to you if you know anything about animals. This one is best left to the kids who are still learning.

All in all, I would buy this for quite a few kids I know because of the educational and nonviolent elements but I should have tried it before I bought it for myself.

Good for entertaining kids

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: May 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My son loves to watch me play this game. He is only three and playing with the multiple controllers is too much for him but he loves animals and loves to find them for me and tell me which way to go. The game is a bit repetitive but it's nice and fun to play.

wait until its cheaper

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: May 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

THE GRAPHICS IN THIS ARE VERY GOOD...SOUNDS OF THE ANIMALS, CAMERA, MUSIC, AND BRITISH ACCENTS OF COMMENTATORS IS FUN AND PLEASANT TO LISTEN TOO....BUT I FOUND IT BORING AFTER A SHORT TIME...IF YOU BUY IT CHEAP YOU'LL HAVE SOME FUN, IF YOU PAY ALOT...SORRY

Wild earth African safari is a worth thirty dollors

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: May 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Wild Earth African Safari is a really fun game to play taking pictures of animals all over Africa. The graphics are really good and the animals actions and sound are really life like.The price for the game is worth the thirty dollars and was everything i expected. buy this game..

Animal Planet For Kids

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

What fun! Grab your camera, hop into your Jeep, your helicopter, or your kayak, and ready yourselves for an African Safari without killing or hurting anyone or anything. Gaming is finally catching on and producing games that discourage the assault of the natural world. I am delighted to recommend this entertainment to all ages.

very educational

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game isn't like a game. You take pictures of animals and you learn all kinds of facts about them. It is very educational.

safari

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is very mellow because there isn't a time limit or parameters set. You can just wander around the safari if you want (the younger kids do that and are happy) or follow the actual game and photograph the animals (which is what I tried to do).

I think it is entertaining for about an hour. At that point I am a little dizzy. The character's camera moves and rotates so well that I need to learn more control to balance things out.

Also my own error, but I don't understand the map graphic that is supposed to guide you (bottom right side). The instructions just said to use it but not how. I have a feeling that everybody else knows how to use it but me. :)

All in all, very cute, colorful, educational, and non-violent. It's nice to have a game where your goal isn't to hunt or shoot the animals.
The game helps the user feel incorporated into "the circle of life" on the safari.

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