Tornado: The Secret of the Magic Cave

When you plan to go for a picnic what kind of things are you trying to foresee? Do you always know for sure which things are essential and which might occur needless? Will you go if you know that you'll get into tornado? And what will you do if it actually happens? Tom and Amy face all these question in a new Hidden Object Game called Tornado: The Secret of the Magic Cave.

The game is a real treasure for two categories of the players: the ones who study English and the teenagers. Why is it so? For several reasons...

Those of you who study English will enlarge the vocabulary as all the items you deal with are labeled. So you'll get to know not only the names of all the garden inventory but also the toolware and many other things. As for the young players they'll ascertain that their parents are not the only ones in the whole universe who want them to do some household chores before they may go.

The game starts when Tom and Amy being still home decide to have a picnic. But besides gathering the things they need to take with they get several assignments from their mom.

So looking for fishing tackles and shuttlecocks alternates with picking up the dad's toolware scattered round the garden. The typical HOG-scenes are a little bit complicated. Some of the items are hidden behind the other things. So that you need to start up a toy locomotive for example before you can find the playing card right the same place where the toy stayed. The other feature of these tasks is that sometimes you need an item that you have to complete first. Thus you need to find the batteries and the film for the camera before you can finally take it to your backpack. But you're allowed to click as many times as you want. Though it is not enough to click twice when you want the found item to get to its place. You have to do it with the drug-and-drop method. And sometimes it annoys.

The game is a real treasure for two categories of the players: the ones who study English and the teenagers.

The gameplot of the game is unpretentious. The kids go for a picnic, get into tornado that brings them to a magic cave. There goes all that usual stuff with the treasure and so on and so force. To tell the truth both gameplot and graphics are not the strength of the game. The gameplot has no twists. It is absolutely predictable. As for the graphics it really lacks some motion and animation. The colours are bright and the pictures are full of tiny details but when you see the way the heroes move their heads and legs you cannot stop laughing. It looks a little bit odd as for the game made in the 21st century!

The music rouses no censure. It fits everything what is going on. But it's not remarkable. Though maybe it is not so bad when it goes about the computer games.

The puzzles in the game are not at all the back-breaker. Anyway you always have a hint system at your disposal. Besides the game has two modes – the one where the hint button recharges quickly and the other with a slowly recharging hint button. So everyone may find the proper pace.

Maybe the game is not a masterpiece of the genre, but it is really worth of attention of those of you, who enjoy regular life, predictability and lots of HOG-scenes.