Pen Pen Tri-icileon
Reviewed by Clement Chan Zhi Li
Pen Pen Trilcelon is possibly the wackiest racing game ever
that delivers the most laugh to you and the best enjoyment
for the whole family. It's not even a racing game, you can
play with seven cute and weird characters that ranged from a
big and fat hippo to a sneaky-looking shark. Most of them
are ice and water animals that is suitable to this racing
game environment. It's more appealing to kids of course, but
adults may enjoy it all the same.
Graphics - 9
The graphics are extremely detailed, all of them in a
cartoon-looking environment. The sweet-trees lighting up
like a Christmas tree in the Sweet course, snow that brush
away from your feet, rapid water racing and other mostly
unnoticeable background that are really, really detailed.
The blue sky looks very real with few clouds floating on
top, despite its features based on cartoon. All of the
characters are designed in fully 3D, modeled in the coolest
and creative way that will make children squeal and adults laugh.
The colours zipped through every single thing in the whole
game that what makes this game looks cheerful and bright.
The water rippled through as if they're almost realistic,
bright white snow and odd-looking snowman with a top yellow
hat, weird but adorable creatures standing at the side that
will block you from going further if you bang into it and
many other cute stuff. Although the game is fast-paced,
there are simply no slow-down or any problem in the
frame-rates as they're totally smooth.
Music - 9
The background music are enjoyable that will follow the
theme of the track itself with each odd-looking host telling
what you should do before you start in their odd language (a
subtitle will guide you, of course). Though there are only
four tracks, the music will depending on what type of course
you will take. The sound effects, on the other hand, purely
suits everything that you do, ranging from swimming to
walking in a babyish way. The voice that will guide you
through the game are weird too, honestly sounding like a
childish adult. There's nothing more that you had ever
laughed so much before this game.
Gameplay - 10
There are only four courses in Pen Pen, sadly speaking. But
each course will start with three different difficulties
which you must beat every each of them. There are the Sweet
course, where you can expect candy and ice-cream trees and
all sorts of never-heard-before things that will exist in
this fantasy world of cartoon. The Horror course may not be
so appealing to the younger children as they represents
ghosts and skeletons and flying books, hence the name. The
other two courses are as great as these two courses, with
many obstacles lie ahead and button-mashings to do.
There are seven characters for you to play as, with their
cute and awkward looks that are certainly really funny. All
of them have their own weakness and abilities that will
either help you to win the course or making you to sob sadly
because you can't win this simple and easy game. Though this
game is centered basically on kids, adults will have some
problems too with this game as some parts of the game are
annoyingly hard.
You'll go through several types of activities in this game
that requires only three funny skills. One is the
belly-sliding, which will require you to tap the A button
off and on repeatedly to get your character going, racing
against the others. There are different kinds of places that
will sort of stop you for a while to continue to the next
area. It's more like a 'lap'. You can also go swimming in
the water while avoiding those dangerous obstacles and
walking all the way to the top while jumping on the stairs.
They're weird, really.
Not to mention that the three different difficulties of the
game has their own specialties that will affect your course
later on. For example, choosing Easy Course will allow you
to go for a real short course through the game with no or
less obstacles. It's good for beginners to understand the
basic concept of the game before going further, as well as
get used to this type of racing environment. The Middle
Course will be as short as the Easy Course except that it
will have obstacles that will slow you down and make you
lose. The Long Course will go one step further after the
Easy Course and Middle Course and will have obstacles too
like the Middle Course. Finishing all this three will unlock
two more type of courses which can be hard, depending on the
type of the character and tracks that you had chosen.
The Tricelon mode is basically a one-player game. Finishing
a track with either one of the three courses will earn you a
dressing item, which affect how you get through the game
considerably. Example, if you get a pair of Trekking Shoes,
you can walk faster but other abilities will be slowed down
a little. All of them have their own good points and bad
points so remember what you had chosen. If you had
successfully get items that matched each other, you will
automatically be able to select those items at one time
which prove incredibly useful in the adventure. If you let
one of your characters (say, Mr. Bow) use the Santa's Bag
and you chose the other one (like Jaw), you will see that
Mr. Bow which will be computer-controlled will wear that
during the course!
If you have one or more friends with you and have extra
controllers handy, you can easily play against your friends
at the Vsicelon mode where you can choose whether to have
two to four players fighting up together. This will be
certainly fun as other games do if you fight against your
friends, racing against each other in order to see who wins.
However, you can't use any of those Dress-Up items that you
had obtained in the Tricelon mode. Bugger.
You can also race up in the Time Trial mode which honestly,
I think, do not really think much of it. If you have some
friends with you by your side, you can easily see who get
the fastest time through a certain course by using this mode
though Tricelon mode is the one that really shows up and
livens your live even more. This is possibly the mode that
you will rarely play or not even play it. Get yourself over
this and head for this fun game.
Controls - 10
The controls are not too confusing and it's easy, probably
because to make sure that it suit the younger kids. For
swimming and belly-sliding, you'll need to hold the A button
and leave it, hold it and leave it. It's all in a simple
routine and not at all difficult to remember. To move, you
can choose either to use the analog stick or the D-pad. In
the walking race, if your opponent is not too far in front
of you, press the B button and your character will knock the
opponent down! If by chance you missed him or her, your
character will waste a few seconds to get up.
Replay Value - 6
This is the part where this game shines its poorest. Sure,
it's great enough to have yourself playing the whole game
and complete all tracksÉ in one day but there's a 60% chance
that you can do that. Despite those wonderful dressing items
that will keep you coming back for more of them, completing
only four tracks and all of those five courses (including
the secret ones) are not really that hard, especially if
you're good in this kind of game.
The Vsicelon may keep you coming back too as you can choose
whether to have Mixed Competition where you can play the
Long Course using this mode or choose which part you want to
go. It's fun when you play against friends or family members
but it can get boring after a while, especially as it has
only four tracks. You might be excited one day, playing it
and got thoroughly addicted to it but after a while, you'll
turn over to another game.
Overall - 9 out of 10
It's sure a nice game to play, what with all those cute
cartoon characters with Mr. Bow's tongue sticking out. This
game is great to be played when you're in the mood of
hanging together with this kind of games, with the whole
crowd of friends or family around you watching. It's also
especially perfect if you had a baby brother or sister or
children which will keep on crying. Let them see this game
and you will be glad to see them happy. If you can shell out
some extra bucks or get this one cheap, be sure to do so as
it's never too late to get this one to provide you a short
span of entertainment.
Pen Pen
-----
+ Cute looking characters that will melt your heart.
+ Original idea together with the three wacky type of
racing!
+ Wonderful graphics and background music that adds a lot to
the game.
Dent Dent
-----
- Providing you a short span of entertainment.
- Only four tracks?
- Can become boring after playing for a while.
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