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Jambo Safari: Animal Rescue Review


Jambo! Safari: Animal Rescue is a game perfectly suited for the DS. It’s simple, laid-back approach to gaming is the perfect atmosphere that will appeal to younger gamers on the go. As with the Wii version, you take control of a trainee safari park ranger, who’s job it is to lasso injured animals and care for them, keep the park clean and assist other rangers with other tasks.

The main gameplay feature is the combination of driving and lassoing animals. Driving your vehicle is done with the D-pad to steer, the A button to accelerate and the B button to brake (hold to reverse); much like most traditional driving mechanics in other games. The lasso automatically comes into action the moment you come close to an animal. With the lasso in action you must drive close behind the animal you want to catch until you lock on. Once this happens press the R button to catch it with the lasso. The L button now comes into play. Using this reels the rope in to allow you to make the catch. Keep the tightness low and the rope wont break. Once the animal is close enough you can launch the net with the R button to make the catch.

The controls transfer to the DS perfectly and each catch is as simple to perform as the last. The only issue we have with them is that without performing the lasso action with the Wii Remote takes some of the enjoyment away from the task. With this missing, the whole procedure becomes very repetitive quite quickly and you’ll soon grow tired of it.

Locking onto a particular animal is still as awkward as it is on the Wii when you drive through a herd of other animals. Your target tends to jump between other animals which is fairly frustrating when you’re about to hurl your lasso and it doesn’t happen.

The rest of the game is also delivered completely intact. The game mainly requires you to catch certain animals, collect a certain amount of litter in a set time, partake in fetch quests, drive visitors around the park and so on. You guessed it, you can expect a lot of the same thing for most of your gameplay experience. The DS version is just as repetitive as the Wii version.

However, the DS version does include some slight improvements over its’ next generation cousin. The vehicles are a lot easier to handle and the reverse works a lot quicker. Deep water is a lot easier to recognise and it doesn’t appear as often so there isn’t as much fear of plunging your vehicle into the murky depths. New items are available to buy and unlock such as hats and sunglasses for your character. Extras for the vehicles that don’t change anything other than cosmetics such as bumpers have also been removed.

The frame rate is also surprisingly consistent for a game this size. The game’s open world makes a fantastic transfer to the DS. It’s just as fun to explore thanks to the brilliant driving controls. The only difference is that landmarks are kept to a minimum and there aren’t as many caves and secret areas to search for. Most items are just scattered around the plains making exploration a little redundant.

The 4 vehicles are unlocked a lot quicker as well. They’re still very distinct but they don‘t control as differently as they do on the Wii. The main difference between them is their top speed. This is a shame as this mainly means you’ll only ever use the Defender 110 and the Bombardier occasionally to traverse deep water.

Essentially, the DS version gives you a pretty decent portable version of the Wii game with a consistent frame rate, improved driving controls and some exclusive unlockable items. But with the interactivity removed and some simplified scenarios, the problems with the original show a little brighter and you’ll soon realise that there’s not much to it.



6/10



Written by Sonic Yoda on 26/01/2010



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