The world of espionage has been in the news a lot recently, with the tricks that Governments use being brought out into the open. But while James Bond may still have the monopoly on high octane chases, and there's often nothing a good hacker can't find, it seems the most popular way of spying on someone is to make use of a bug - but we're not sure this is quite what they meant. Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler, the latest game for Sony's innovative camera/book peripheral casts you as the sidekick to top titular detective, Diggs Nightcrawler, a turquoise worm with a voice straight out of a classic noir film, and a penchant for solving crimes. Set in a world full of characters that have been borrowed from classic nursery rhymes, from the three little pigs (who incidentally, are policemen), to "Robin the Hood", the story begins when the giant, yet surprisingly well spoken egg Humpty Dumpty gets unceremoniously popped off - and it's up to you to find out whodunnit.
If you're unfamiliar with Wonderbook, or you haven't played the first game Book of Spells, there's a pretty lengthy list things you'll want to check you own before you come to sit down and play. An "augmented reality" game that puts you and your family on the screen, and makes all sorts of things look like they're happening in your living room, you'll need a Playstation Eye camera, a Playstation Move controller, and the Wonderbook itself to get started, with the game being available either on its own, or as part of a handy bundle that comes with everything you'll need to get going.
Pointing the camera at the ground, and plonking the Wonderbook (and yourself) down in front of it, you'll find a mirror image of your room on your TV screen, only instead of the Wonderbook being in front of you, you've got Diggs Nightcrawler's notebook instead. Turn the page, and you'll open the doors to the best, most interactive pop-up book you've ever seen, as a whole world springs to life from the pages, with characters, special effects, and dozens of little tricks that'll leave your, and your children's jaws on the floor. There's certainly a magical feel to Wonderbook, and one that takes a long time to wear off - even if it isn't really all that much of a game...
Turning the page causes a totally different scene to appear in front of your eyes.
Divided up into three chapters, each of which involves a single trip through all 12 pages of the Wonderbook, it's up to you - "the kid" - to help veteran detective Diggs solve the case of Humpty's murder. Hot on the case, there'll be Wonderbook-powered mini-games to take part in, clues to spot, and names to be taken as you follow the tale through to its conclusion - but, somewhat sadly, a lot of your time will actually be spent simply sitting around watching the story unfold, rather than playing a true part in it. When you actually get to interact with the book, it's every bit as magical as you'd expect - whether you're rotating the book to peer behind a wall, tilting the pages together to work a crank, or brushing the pages down to reveal a clue - but instead of playing to its strengths and having each and every seen full of things to interact with, the game's mostly a procession of long, rambling, and often unfunny cutscenes with random prompts to do something thrown in-between. It's especially odd, as the developers do seem to have realised it's a problem - they just haven't done a very good job of fixing it. Although the game features unlockable trophies that reward you for exploring the scenes of your own accord - whether you're rotating the book to see things that are hidden behind walls, or brushing your hand over something on the ground to interact with it - at times, you're actually punished for trying to do so. Rotate the book to have a look around because you've got bored, and most times, the game will simply pause, and tell you to turn the book back before it can carry on. Seemingly, you can only really explore the scenes freely at designated times - but there are no prompts to tell you what those times are.
Of course, you wouldn't be much of an assistant if you just sat and watched, so you will be called on to give Diggs a helping hand from time to time. While these can often be as simple as rotating the book to help Diggs squeeze round a corner, your tasks occasionally take things to a slightly more complex level, with somewhat mixed results. One of the early (and ingenious) sections asks you to tilt the book, to help shine a light that's suspended from the centre so that it'll shine inside a bin, or the bonnet of a car - and it's great seeing the world of the book react as you pick it up and move it around your living room - while another asks you to simply rotate the book, left or right, to help Diggs find his way through a maze. For a controller that has no buttons, there are plenty of different things you can do with the Wonderbook - but sometimes, Diggs seems to take things a bit too far for its own good.
Here, you have to rotate the book to get Diggs up the tower, pausing to avoid stuff that's being thrown at you from above.
Some of the mini-games seem to ask just that little bit too much of the technology, and as such, tend to be a little bit hit and miss. One of the sections asked us to choose where we wanted to go next, tilting the book left and right to scroll through the options, before placing it flat to select - but oddly, the options just kept scrolling. No matter how flat we tried to place the book, the game simply wouldn't accept it, and kept skipping through the options endlessly. A quick recalibration solved the problem - but it wasn't the only one we came across. Another glitchy mini-game saw Diggs driving down a road, and asked you to tilt the book to steer him left and right, avoiding the obstacles as you went - but while this one was at least playable, it didn't work quite as well as you could have expected. For some reason, no matter how gently we tilted the book, we could only move to the extreme left, or the extreme right of the road - which wouldn't be too much of a problem, were it not for the fact that the thing we were chasing after was in the middle. It was another slightly dodgy, and slightly disappointing game - although at no point did we get as frustrated with this as we have done with so many Kinect games. While we may have had a few teething problems, a quick recalibration usually fixed things - which is more than can be said for Kinect.
While it's not completely broken, Diggs Nightcrawler is at least flawed in several places, especially for a game aimed at children. The glitchy mini-games may end up being frustrating for some younger players, and the lengthy dialogue may fail to hold their attention, while the lack of any sort of a counter on some of the mini-games also robs you of any sense of progress. One of the minigames asks you to tilt the book to shine a light on some sheep as they pop up through holes in the floor, like a whack-a-mole game, but there's nothing telling you how many sheep you have left to whack. As a lot of the games go on for quite a long time, you'll often end up wondering if the game's jammed up, or is actually registering what your progress - and for a game aimed at children, some sort of tangible progress bar is essential. With a little bit of extra polish, and a bit more interactivity, Diggs could have been a lot better. As it is, if you're desperate to get some more use out of your Wonderbook, this may be worth a look - but if you can hold off, it's probably worth waiting for the brilliant looking Walking With Dinosaurs book instead.
Format Reviewed: Playstation 3
