Developer/Publisher: Family
Games.com
Platform:
By
Audrey Wells
Santa’s
Secret Valley is a nonviolent shareware adventure game aimed towards children.
In it, you play as one of Santa’s most industrious elves, Fizbin. Over the course
of a hundred or so years, Fizbin has begun to feel slightly discontent with his
life. Santa has noticed the elf’s restlessness, and he decides to put Fizbin in
charge of watching over his most precious possessions: his magic sack, his magic
boots, and his magic bell. Santa needs these three items in order to deliver all
of the Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, Fizbin the Elf has a tendency to fall asleep
easily, and while watching the items he dozes off in the comfort of an armchair
by a cheery fire. When he awakes, all of the magic items have been stolen! It
is up to you to help Fizbin recover the three items or Christmas will be ruined.
Though I found the story a bit hackneyed, it is probably just right for the young
audience that this game is intended for. The story receives a B.
The
Santa’s Secret Valley graphics are not bad, considering that this is a
shareware game. However, they are very small. Using 1024 by 768 monitor resolution,
the actual scene (not including the inventory and room description) takes up about
a quarter of the screen. Obviously, using a lower screen area (such as 800 by
600) will make it larger. I think the graphics are adequate for a shareware game,
but they could have been improved in my opinion (see the screenshots and decide
for yourself). The graphics get a B.
The game has several gameplay
features that may please or annoy you, depending on the type of gamer that you
are. But the variety of puzzles was pleasantly surprising. There are musical
puzzles. There are word scramblers and combinations. There are sliding tile puzzles.
There are a lot of mazes. There are even game shows. The worst are the
mazes, some of which are confusing and can easily turn into a click-fest, even
when using old-fashioned graph paper to map them out. Thankfully, these are relatively
short. The rest of the mazes are genuinely fun, incorporating an interesting puzzle
into their design. The music puzzles are fun to do because they often involve
Christmas songs. Never fear, for they are designed so that you do not need special
musical listening skills to complete them. The game show is enjoyable because
the trivia questions (Christmas-related, of course) are interesting and unusual.
It’s a simple enough matter to just wing it though the show in order to win the
prize, but all the information you might need to win is also stored in the town’s
library. Overall, despite a few badly designed mazes, I found the gameplay enjoyable
and award it a grade of B+.
The characters that Fizbin interacts
with over the course of his adventure speak in text bubbles, so there are no voices.
The music and sound effects in Santa’s Secret Valley are sparse and probably
could have been improved. Due to this, the music and sound get a C.
The
combination of Christmas spirit and enjoyable gameplay (mazes aside) make this
game perfect for those little elves on your Christmas list. The tryout version
of the shareware is downloadable for free at the Family
Games website, and the full version can be unlocked from the download with
the purchase of a registration key. Or if you feel so inclined, a CD-ROM with
this game (and many others) can be purchased.
Final Grade: B
System
Requirements:486 or better recommended
Windows
3.1 (16-bit version), Windows 95 or Windows NT (32-bit version)
8 MB RAM
9
MB free hard disk space
Minimum 256 colors graphics
Sound card recommended
but not required
