For more on Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler, check out our full Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler review. Or, for more of the best Playstation 3 games for a 7 year old, why not try our Family Game Finder
Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler is a game for Sony's book/camera peripheral, Wonderbook. Requiring a Playstation Move controller, a Playstation Eye camera, and the Wonderbook itself, the game's available either on its own, or as part of a handy bundle that comes with everything you need to get going. If you already own the previous game, Book of Spells, you should have everything you need already.
Set in a film noir inspired world, Diggs Nightcrawler follows the titular detective Diggs, a turquoise worm with a penchant for solving crimes. As his assistant, "the kid", you'll help Diggs out as he speaks to witnesses, searches for clues, and tries to find the baddies responsible for smashing Humpty Dumpty - while searching for the pieces to put him back together again.
An "augmented reality" game that puts you, and your family on the TV screen and makes it look like all sorts of incredible things are happening in your living room, Diggs Nightcrawler turns the Wonderbook into an incredible, animated 3D pop-up book with interactive features. A lot of your child's time with the game will be spent simply watching the story unfold, before being prompted to rotate the book, tilt its pages together, shake it, or take part in a slightly more complex mini-game. While the interactions with the book are pretty mind-blowing - the things you can do with Wonderbook never fail to impress, and you'll constantly be thinking "how does it do that?" - the amount of dialogue involved, and the fact your child will often have to sit patiently waiting for the next time they can interact with the book make this a game best suited to more patient children, or those who love a good story.
Some of the mini-games, meanwhile, may also throw up a few problems for younger players, as they require a very specific way of thinking. You have to tilt the book, or fold the book, while keeping the pages visible to the camera. It can take a bit of getting your head around, especially for younger children, so it may be best if an adult sat with them and gave them a helping hand - but otherwise, with full voice acting and very little reading, bar a few bugs/glitches that rear their heads from time to time in some of the games, your child should have little problems getting their head around this.
Aimed squarely at the family/child market, there's little for parents to be concerned about with Wonderbook. There's no swearing, blood, or sex, with the only thing that's really worth mentioning being the use of guns at one point in the game, where Diggs gives chase to a baddie, and has to lean out from behind a wall to shoot at them. Other than that, this is thoroughly kid friendly.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Playstation 3
