It
has been a year since the debut of the Hardy Boys in their own adventure on the
PC. Previously, they have had to share the action with Nancy Drew on a few of
her many adventures from Her Interactive, but last year they went solo on the PC
in The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft from The Adventure Company. Now, a year
later, they have been ported to the Wii.
Essentially, this is the exact same game as last year’s PC version, with only
the controller being different. Therefore, I am including that review in this
one, with additional comments specific to the Wii version. Following is an
excerpt from that review (which you can read in its entirety here, at
The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft PC review.)
Immediately, players
are presented with high-energy action from the Hardy boys, two male teens who
love to solve mysteries. Like Nancy Drew, the original Hardy Boys are a
long-standing series of novels spanning the 1920’s to the 1970’s, with spin-off
series published afterwards until now. Unlike the teens in the original series,
evidently these two guys aren’t afraid to cause a bit of property damage in
their sleuthing, or even to steal evidence. A little later in the game, another
teen even impersonates a police officer, which is a big no-no in real life.
Reality aside, the
stage is seemingly set for an action-packed game. However, after this frenetic
introduction, the action slows to a crawl while Frank and Joe leisurely explore
the town, high school and other locations to solve the mystery.
The Hidden Theft
involves a theft of security bonds from an eccentric man, Samuel Spencer, who
lives on a large estate. As these bonds were kept in a safe with a combination
that only he and his brother, Thomas Spencer, knew, Samuel believes that his
brother is somehow involved in the theft. Security bonds can be cashed by
anyone, so it is imperative that the bonds are recovered quickly. Frank and Joe
Hardy, the teen sleuths, are requested by an organization called the American
Teens Against Crime, to help solve the mystery. What is really funny about this
slightly hokey organization is that the teen representing them is the one who
impersonated the police officer.
The game is a
standard adventure game, where players interview characters, collect inventory
items and solve puzzles. Much of this game is spent in talking to characters and
walking around places looking for things to take. Despite the action sequence in
the introductory cartoon, there is not much action. While there are some
interesting puzzles later in the game, it seems to take forever to get to them.
The interface is not
as easy or intuitive as it could be. Players will move Frank and Joe by clicking
on footprint icons that will show in the corners of location, indicating that
they can move to another place. However, this doesn’t work very well, and
sometimes it’s hard to get Frank and Joe to a place that will trigger the
footprints. The large inventory menu is displayed smack dab in the middle of the
screen, obstructing the view of the screen. It’s not readily evident how to use
the needed object and get out of the menu. Players will need to left-click the
desired object, then right-click to get out of the menu. How to open certain
inventory objects is also not easily understood. I wasted quite some time in the
beginning of the game before I realized I could double-click on an item and open
it to extract the contents.
On the whole, this is
a fair game for young teens. The plot is intriguing and will keep interest for
much of the game. The American Teens Against Crime idea is silly, but it’s not
really a big part of the game after the first chapter. The dialogue and comments
from Frank and Joe are the best part of the game, and will definitely connect to
young teens. The writing is well-done, and I especially enjoyed their mom’s
comments. The puzzles are also good, but there aren’t enough of them, especially
in the beginning of the game. If compared to the Nancy Drew games, The Hardy
Boys isn’t as entertaining, but this is the first game in the series and is a
good beginning. Hopefully there will be more games to come, with some
improvements. "
The
above is the review of the PC game. The only thing that is different for the Wii
is the use of the Wii-mote instead of a mouse for game interaction. The actions
and menus are all the same. The menu is still annoyingly slap dab in the middle
of the screen, the footprints are still icons for movement, and the action icons
are the same. I wish they would have changed the menu design during the port.
The
characters and objects don’t look quite as good on the Wii as on the PC, but
that is due more to the differences in graphical capabilities between a computer
and the Wii, I would think, than any design changes.
It’s
hard to say which version to choose. They are both the same, except for the
controller and and game system. The difference in price is only $10 more for the
Wii. Which game to get will really depend on a preference to having the kids
play on the Wii, or on the PC.
Gameplay:
7.0
From the PC review: "An average adventure game for teens. The story is
interesting, but the action is pretty slow. Much of the time players will be
moving from one location to another, trying to figure out what to do next. The
puzzles are fun enough, but there aren’t enough."
Graphics:
7.0
The graphics aren’t nearly as attractive as in the PC version. The characters
are blocky and they move a bit stiffly. However, this is probably due to the Wii
graphical capabilities as compared to the PC.
Sound:
7.0
The music and sound effects are average in quality.
Difficulty:
Medium
The game is of a medium difficulty, with some puzzles harder than others.
Concept: 7.0
There isn’t a whole lot that is new, but the presentation is decent.
Overall: 7.0
From the PC review: "A nice enough teen adventure that doesn’t have any
inappropriate content, but one that could have been better. More things to do,
more puzzles. The story is interesting, though, and the teen characterization of
the Hardy boys is well-done. "
The
Wii version is a faithful port of the original PC game. The graphics are not as
good, but everything else works pretty much the same. The only real difference
is the price, which is around $10 more for the Wii version than the PC version.
