Thoughts by Tapuak (17 00 2001) – SNES
It’s about time to offer our younger visitors something with educational value. I’ll do it with Goof Troop and I also admit that I played it although I’m not 8 any more (didn’t you guess that?). How embarrassing, but I’ll try hard to justify it with this review.
The goal of the game is to drive away the pirate ‘Keelhaul Pete’ from an island which in fact means to conquer the island. Well, isn’t that something educational: solving a conflict by means of force and expulsion? The player plays this campaign with Disney’s Goofy and his son (?) Max. With such fearsome attackers the pirates will surely already be wetting themselves.
And not without a reason! Because shortly after landing on the island’s beach (D-Day 2) the action starts. With flower pots, barrels and similar throwing ‘weapons’ you get rid of this evil scum. Furthermore Goofy can carry up to two objects at one time which are mostly needed for solving ‘puzzles’. They are normally very easy: a bridge which has a hole at one place – well, maybe we could use the board which we’ve found just 10 seconds ago?
Quite often the player is confronted with Sokoban-style puzzles to open doors etc. They are more demanding and should bring the average usual player (infant) to the limits of his intellect. The attempt to implement adventure elements was not very successful. You can only watch the rare ‘dialogues’ and they don’t help in solving the ‘riddles’. Either you learn about how mean the pirates are to the island dwellers or you get confused because you think that somehow there should be a hint in them. So action is still in first spot.
Technically the game is in a typical SNES-style: colorful graphics, easy controls and annoying sound. Noticeable is the not selectable difficulty level which is suitable for kids and a two-player mode (Goofy and Max as a cunning duo), which doesn’t bring anything new into the game, however. Have I justified myself enough? Yes! Because sometimes games, which don’t ask too much of the player, are also the right choice for people over 12!
