Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
Ages: Everyone 6+

Hard to believe that this game is made by the same company and based on the same movie as the GameBoy Advance version. Generally, PC versions have better graphics and a more developed story line – not so here. In this version, you are Spirit and you have to free seven horses from various situations of captivity and drudgery. You job is complicated by having to nurse Rain – and she requires much attention which keeps you going hither and yon. No sooner do you embark upon a rescue, Rain needs a drink of water or a sugar cube. Since, at the beginning of the game you can only carry one thing at a time – this is a lot of hassle. Later on, if you gather 150 arrow heads you can buy a pouch to hold more objects (I didn't get that far)

The graphics are too poor to be called graphics. Viewed mostly from top down, what you see is the Spirit's back and is he s-l-o-w. At the beginning of the game his rate of speed is three carrots – by game end, after racing eagles and rabbits, you can get him up to seven carrots. If you need a Spirit game – go get the GBA version.

Editor Review

Spirit and his friends are caught by a couple of horse rustlers. One by one, they all get sold off, until only Spirit and an old gray horse remain. It is Spirit's job to free all of his horse friends by helping the owners with different tasks. To add to the fun, Spirit's friend Rain is hurt and will need you to take food and water to her. As you collect carrots, you can go faster, and can jump farther, meaning you can jump to other levels.

Personally, we thought that this game was very good. We like it because even though you do similar things in each level, they get harder as you advance, so you never get bored. For example: In the first level, you have to figure out how to free the old gray horse, as it is too old †o jump over the fence. To free him, you must find a path that leads to a big rock, which you can kick over to break the fence. In another level, to free a friend you have to locate an ox that will take the place of Spirit's friend. The only way to get the ox to the farmer is to free it's yoke from a tree branch, and then feed it apples.

So even though the goal is always to free a friend, the tasks are always different, which makes the game very exciting.

Although the game was fun, it doesn't change every time you play it, so once you finish it, you may not want to play it again. (Don't worry though, because it's pretty long.)

We both thought that the music was pretty good, but the voices were sometimes a little wacky. This doesn't really matter, however, because little dialogue boxes come up every time someone says something.

This game can definitely be played with a friend! We played it together, switching when one of us had accomplished something. We are both twelve, but we think that this game can be played by younger and a little bit older kids.

Every time that Rain needed water or food, we were right in the middle of doing some other task, and we'd have to rush over to her and feed her, before she got angry and her health got worse. That was pretty annoying other than that, there wasn't really anything else that was troublesome.

Reviewed by Michelle K.and Tobie C.