Tigger's Honey Hunt

Overall: B+
Violence: A-
Sexual Content: A
Language: A
Drugs/Alcohol: A

Platform reviewed: Nintendo 64
Publisher: Disney Interactive
ESRB rating: E

T-I-double-guh-Er spells Tigger, and identifies the hyperactive hopping Tiger that inhabits the Hundred-Acre Wood with Winnie the Pooh and the rest of his friends.

In this Nintendo 64 title, A. A. Milne's storybook characters are based on their Disney incarnations--likely the ones everyone is familiar with. Perhaps the most creative element of this game is the instruction manual, written like a story in which Owl reads the minute details of operating the Nintendo controllers to a very distracted Tigger who ends up chasing a sugar cube under his feathered friend's table.

Starting the game, the player is presented with a short video where they watch and read (no words are spoken aloud in this game) about Pooh pondering the idea of having a huge party. At his most thoughtful moment, in bounces Tigger, who stumbles over the many empty honey pots cluttering the bear's home. Smart enough to know how to keep his energy-laden friend busy, Pooh sends Tigger on the errand of collecting enough honey for the festivities.

With the game controller in hand, you become Tigger, looking for honey on the first of nine different game levels. Called a "side scrolling" game, Tigger's character stays centered on the screen while the background moves behind him. Wandering down a variety of paths, honey pots appear hanging in the air, allowing Tigger to be his bounciest best as he reaches up to grab them.

To graduate to the next level, Tigger must collect the number of pots specified by Owl, the character who keeps everyone on the same page, so to speak. Reaching Owl's goal is relatively easy, allowing even the youngest players to feel like they've accomplished something. Each successive level delivers slightly more difficult situations and an increasing number of pots to collect. Along the path, Tigger meets things he should stay away from, like a swarm of bees. If he doesn't crouch fast enough, he will loose a little butterfly from the Tigger's Courage Meter. Lose too many of these and he is sent back to the last checkpoint that he passed. Tigger is also presented with other challenges like a game of "Rabbit Says" and "Pooh Sticks." Winning these games provides him with additional abilities, the most important one being the Accordion Leap that allows Tigger to rocket into the air using the compressed energy in his tail.

While essentially a single-player game, there are multi-player versions of Rabbit Says (push the same sequence of buttons as Rabbit does) and Pooh Sticks (similar to the classic pastime featured in the Winnie the Pooh animated movies), which may be played independently of the main adventure with up to four players.

Tigger's Honey Hunt is certainly child-friendly, both in content and challenge. My 12-year-old had the entire game completed in a couple of hours, while my 8-year-old conquered nearly half the levels in the same amount of time. However, seasoned game-playing youngsters will likely balk at this tame tiger. Yet, as an introductory game for the youngest N64 devotees (with parents helping them read the instructions on the screen), Tigger may be the perfect walk in the woods.

Rod Gustafson

©2001 One Voice Communications. All Rights Reserved